A day in the car

Hello dear ones,

Here I am again. I know, I know, this entry should have come much earlier, but I was just so tired... I couldn't do anything after almost falling asleep while eating, so I decided to postpone writing the blog. But let's start from the beginning, why was I sooooo incredibly tired that I just let you down..

On Wednesday, March 15th, we got up early in Ohakune because we had a lot planned for the day. We wanted to drive to one of the mountains in Tangario National Park and hike to the waterfalls, and then we had a pretty long drive to Wellington ahead of us.

So we set off on our hike at 9 a.m. in the drizzling rain at 7 degrees. First, we walked to the viewpoint of the Mangawhero Falls and then hiked to the Waitonga Falls. It was a nice mix of uphill and downhill walking, mostly through the forest, and in the middle, all of a sudden, through a swamp area on the plateau. Before we disappeared back into the forest. The waterfalls were also very beautiful and a nice reward. We had to go back the same way, which was quite exhausting because everything we had previously walked down relaxed, we now had to climb back up. But we made it, and in the time allotted for the hike.

Then the almost more exhausting part of the day started for me, driving the car. Since there is a river between the two national parks that is worth seeing, we decided not to take the shortest route to Wellington, but to always follow the river, which once again was a beautiful route with many serpentine curves. What do Jerichow, London, and Athens have in common? They are all on this route :D and are small places where at first glance there is nothing more than a church, a store, and a few houses. From Wanganui, we then went back onto a well-developed country road that took us the rest of the way to Wellington. Landscape-wise, all sections of the route were really beautiful, much more beautiful than can be seen in the photos. River, forests, plains where you wouldn't be surprised to see a hobbit, and then the sea. Wellington feels completely surrounded by the sea and greeted us with bright sunshine and temperatures around 20 degrees. Wellington is also called the Windy City because it is supposedly very windy here, but we think it should be renamed the Hill City. Either you go uphill or downhill, there are actually only straight stretches right at the harbor.

By now we had been sitting in the car for 7 hours and were glad to have arrived at our accommodation. This time we booked with Airbnb and booked a small cozy room in a nice little house in the middle of a mountain. To get from the street to the house, you have to climb a few stairs, which worked great with our giant suitcases :D But we made it and then just walked down the street to Dehli 7, the Indian restaurant where we had a delicious dinner and then just fell into bed.

I wish you a nice evening and a good night. Today (March 16th) we are exploring Mt. Victoria and then going for a little hike.

Best regards,

Jessi