Towards the south

Day 33 - 10/13/23 - from the Beatles to Greta van Fleet

Today we set off from New Plymouth to Palmerston North, a journey of around 4 hours (our pace). We chose the route along the coast and just rode along in front of us. - Our playlists consisted of the Beatles, Monrose, No Angels - of course John Denver and Greta van Fleet.

When we stop in, we always see the typical ordering procedure, which will probably also apply to us due to a lack of staff: you order at the counter or using the QR code in the app, you pay at the counter or directly by credit card, the order is in We have already recorded the table number ourselves or you receive a number holder with a number that you place on your table. The food is brought to the table by the staff. You leave when you're done and don't have to wait for a waiter to pay. Tips are usually not given or have already been added.

What we also noticed was the presence of the police. This is close to ZERO, which suggests that it simply doesn't seem to be necessary here. The same applies to speed controls. People just stick to the limits pretty well. So far we have not detected any speed cameras or other control mechanisms.

Maybe the settlement will come shortly before Christmas :)))

When we arrive in Palmerston, we stretch our legs in the park for a good hour. Here in New Zealand there are so many trees that about 5-7 “trees” share a common trunk and from about 1.50 - 2.00 m above the ground each branch looks for its own path/growth, which overall leads to a very very wide crown.

Palmerston is just a one-night stand for us - we're off to Wellington again tomorrow.

Day 34 - 10/14/23 - Wellington (1)

The journey to Wellington was characterized by constant rain showers, coupled with fog, so that between Palmerston and Wellington we mainly had spray in front of our eyes. We dropped off our rental car at the airport after checking in at the hotel (like many rental car companies, we couldn't take our vehicle with us to the South Island because we didn't bring the car back but dropped it off in Christchurch - so it was a "one-way rental" ) and we set off by bus to take a look at the city.

Speaking of rental cars - both when picking up and dropping off - and we've already experienced this in Australia - people are very relaxed when it comes to checking for scratches and other damage. There's just an “everything-easy feeling” - you trust each other and that's a really good feeling.

It has stopped raining and the sun is shining warmly, but at first we had the impression that we were looking at a city that was a bit old - a little bit tarnished. However, the impression turned positive when we were in the CBD - i.e. the shopping zone.

Nevertheless, the shops here also close at 5 p.m., even on Saturdays, and so we retreated to the hotel because of the strong wind.

The hotel is built in such a way that it can absorb earthquake shocks and since the wind continues to blow strongly, you can always hear creaking on the upper floors, as if you were in a wooden hut.