Mini Roadtrip from 21.11.2016 to 25.11.2016

After saying goodbye to Birgit, Paul, and Lennart, we went shopping in Napier. Although we had taken an afternoon off to plan our further journey, none of the Wwoof hosts we had contacted had responded yet. So, we decided to drive to Castle Point first.

Upon arriving at a small campground, we found out that two hosts had finally replied, and that determined our next destinations: Lower Hutt and Greytown.
Feeling a bit more relaxed after receiving this good news, we enjoyed the beautiful weather and cooked rice with corn and mint-flavored peas, which we absolutely do not recommend. However, adding a generous amount of tomato paste and herb butter made our meal taste quite good in the end.

The next day, we wanted to have baked beans for breakfast, but other campers caused a power outage. So, we had to wait until someone fixed the electricity and hot water supply. Fortunately, after breakfast, we were able to shower with hot water and then drove to the lighthouse in Castle Point. We spent quite a lot of time enjoying the stunning view from there.

At noon, we continued our journey to Masterton for shopping and had Frozen Fanta and Frozen Coke at McDonald's while looking for a suitable campground for the upcoming night. We decided to stay at a campground in Kaitoke Regional Park, where we could see the scenery from the Lord of the Rings movies. Shortly after, we hit the road.

When we arrived at the campground, we wanted to take advantage of the day and go for a hike and visit the mentioned film scene.
Afterwards, hungry, we sat down by the river and cooled our feet in the freezing water. Then we made couscous salad and met our camping neighbors, two backpackers from Israel. They soon invited us to play cards, and we spent the evening in a cozy circle.

The next morning, we went to the supposed Lord of the Rings scene for breakfast, which turned out to be a very unspectacular playground.
A bit disappointed but no longer hungry, we made our way to Lower Hutt, where we visited the art museum and the botanical garden. Since we were still in the mood for more activities, we continued to the Pauatahanui Wildlife Reserve, where we went for a walk and saw many native birds.
Back in Lower Hutt, we had bagels and bought chocolate and red wine at Countdown.

Then it was time for us to move on to the next campground, where we showered, had dinner, and then drank wine and ate our chocolate in our car.

The next day, we slept in and didn't have anything special planned, so we read, Jana cleaned the car windows, and we chatted. In the evening, we cooked pasta with sauce for ourselves.

On our last day without accommodation, we first went to McDonald's in pouring rain to use their Wi-Fi and then went to BurgerKing to do the same and kill time until four o'clock. That's when our next Wwoof hosts, Conrad and Becca, were expecting us.

Jana and Jasmin