New Zealand – 6th Nov 2008 - Day 14

fDuring the night, we were woken by very loud cows, mooing at levels we had never experienced before. It sounded like they were in our room! Two of them started at 4am and continued calling to each other until day light. Fiona managed to sleep through most of it, but John had a harder time.

The sun was peeping out of the clouds at breakfast, however, Barbara warned us that snow had been forecast over the mountains where we had planned to go hiking. It turned out that Barbara had separated a mother and calf the previous day and it was these two who were responsible for the endless mooing. She thought it was funny!!!

The Tongariro crossing is a famous 6 hour hike, offering breathtaking views and today was the only day we could hit it. We went to the visitor centre and it became obvious that the weather was too cold. Winter had returned, it was -6 at the top and snowing hard. Sods law! She showed us some other walks near by, that would be OK, so we opted to do them. We went to a sports shop where John purchased a par of extra warm outdoor trousers. They look almost wooly, are not that fetching but do the job. Fiona also purchased another pair of walking shorts.

Whilst at the visitor centre, we used the phone to cancel our planned B&B and book another, as now, we will be driving to a Town called Napier, due to the weather. There is not point staying in this area as the weather is not supposed to improve until Saturday

As we drove to the start of our walk the weather closed in big time. The heavens open and snow began to fly in all directions in the string wind. When we reached the car park, everything was covered in an inch of wet snow and heavy sleet was falling.

We waited for the weather to clear, dressed in our warmest walking kit and headed out. Within 5 minutes the snow had retuned, forcing us to run for cover, into someone’s porch. After 20 minutes, we set out again, only to be hit by more snow, rain, sleet and cold winds. We gave up, walked back to the car feeling very fed up and decided that all we could do was to begin the drive to Napier.

We stopped off at a sports shop in Taupo to purchase some waterproof trousers as both of us had soaking wet legs within five minutes of walking today. We plan to do more hiking, what ever the weather, so these will most probably come in very handy.

We also visited Woolworths, which in NZ, is more of a supermarket chain. We bought enough for two breakfasts and two dinners as the next B&B has a self contained flat with a full kitchen and you can opt not to have breakfast, which makes it cheaper.

The drive to Napier, took another couple of hours and offered some spectacular scenery. Very alp like, straight out of the Sound of Music or Lord Of The Rings, most of which was filmed in many areas of NZ. The weather also perked up and the sun began to shine. We passed areas of mini mountains, covered in deep green grass, some of which reminded us of Austria.

Our next B&B is called The Grange (see: http://www.thefarmstay.com/) We have the self contained lodge, so we can do as we please, which will be nice. It’s great to meet people on your travels, often it’s what makes a visit memorable, but you can grow tired of meeting new faces every day, it’s good to occasionally be antisocial, especially after two days of our last hosts Barbara and Ray. Lovely, warm people, but my lord could they talk and talk and talk and talk…………………….

We arrived at The Grange at 5pm, but could not find anyone to show us our lodge. We eventually found the son of the lady who owns the place. He was still cleaning our pad, so we went down to town for a wander. This town is supposed to be full of Art Deco buildings. We found a few but were not that impressed with Napier. We are sure it would look and feel better in some summer heat.

We headed back to The Grange for 6pm. This place is so much nicer than the previous B&B. It is clean, warm, very large and has great views over the vine yards and down to the bay.

Tonight the showers have just about died out and they are promising a slow improvement tomorrow and into the weekend. Today has been the worst weather so far. The southerly half of the South Island is having heavy, heavy snow and some of the coldest November temperatures on record.