So it rained Friday evening, and the boss rang and said we wont bother working tomorrow (Saturday) so I decided, I have two days, I might go for a drive somewhere and see a bit more of the country, so I got the maps app out and picked a route, I decided I would head down the west coast to New Plymouth and Whanganui and then back up the middle via State Highway 4.
I should explain at this point what has been going on with my supplied work vehicle. In short ever since I have been here it has been giving trouble, it has spent more time at the mechanics than in my possession. I wont bore you with details of its amazing unreliability, but you will understand when I say I was hesitant to go on a road trip with it. However, we had only got it back from the mechanics again on thursday, and they had found a problem and so we were a little more confident in its reliability, confidence that was falsely placed, as you will learn later on.
After packing the car with all the supplies I thought I would need I headed south, following the GPS towards New Plymouth. The first thing of interest that I came across was this, it seems these New Zealanders have stolen a local Spreyton landmark
Having not made any stops yet, I cruised into a small town Called Piopio, not seeing anything terribly interesting I continued on my way, but, catching my eye on the way out, was a sign that read ‘Hobbit Film Location 14km’. Obviously I went to investigate! I found Hairy Feet, a scenic tour of the filming location for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey scenes involving the Trolls in Trollshaws Forest, and also the cave where Sting was found and given to Bilbo Baggins.
http://www.hairyfeetwaitomo.co.nz
The filming was done at the base of those cliffs, I am hoping to return at some stage and do the tour.
Also, something interesting i found on the road to Hairy Feet
The countryside here is quite remarkable and beautiful
The roads here are absolutely awesome too!
My first look at the west coast this trip
Notice anything unusual?
No you’re not dreaming, the sand along the west coast of New Zealand is in fact black!
These people have an odd fascination with shoes (interestingly, not the only place I saw this on my travels)
I made it to New Plymouth at around 5pm, and I had decided that I wanted to grab tea and continue on to Whanganui, a further 180km down the road, so I could make good time heading north Sunday morning and catch the Hobbit Film Site Tour at 1pm, however, the car had other plans, and it let me know approximately 20km south of New Plymouth, as you may have guessed it broke down, well sorta, it has been filling the sump with diesel, in short, and as the oil gets thinner the injectors get less and less efficient, until the oil is so thin that they cannot function and the engine stops, so I was against the clock to get some fresh oil, and change it before it stopped and left me stranded. Unfortunately by this time everyone had shut, I was able to get the oil, but I did not have a spanner to drain the sump. So I found somewhere to stay and set up camp.
The next morning my first stop was Super Cheap for a spanner, then out to find a quiet place to change the oil. Once that was done I continued on my way, towards Whanganui. As it turns out I am glad that things worked out the way they did, had I traveled to Whanganui Saturday night I would have covered most of the distance in the dark, and i would have missed an awful lot.
The landscape is simply breathtaking
Some more black sand
This was my welcome into Whanganui
I had a look around Whanganui, stopped in at a few shops, took in the sights and then continued on my way, wanting to be back home tonight, and having 400km to traverse, which google told me would take 5.5 hours. And once I got on the road, I discovered why, think Tassie’s West Coast, only way better! State Highway 4, and for around 80km was a magnificent section of road that would be perfect for a Rally, or Targa run! and the view is simply spectacular!
I continued on until I arrived home, doing the last 150km or so in the dark, which I also enjoyed. Google estimated my arrival home at 8:50pm, I got there before 8pm.
This was my score for the weekend. I collect different shot glasses from the places i visit. The bottle on the left contains black sand, a souvenir I collected on Sunday.