Continuation of southern odyssey

Hi again,

More riveting accounts of our motoring progress follow!!

First thing to say is that in the previous enthralling blog we got some dates wrong. We didn't leave Tuakau on Monday as that was Labour Day; we left on Tuesday and spent Tues and Wed nights in New Plymouth - then Thurs night in Wanganui.

We now take up the tale once more.................We were very lucky with the weather all the way and the trip up the ParaPara was no exception. Very scenic and the country looked great, helped no doubt by the fact that it is Spring. All the rural areas that we have passed through have looked equally as good in their own unique ways. We have already mentioned the lush bright green of Taranaki.

It was getting close to lunchtime by the time we arrived at Raetihi and we were somewhat disconcerted when we drove down the main street. At least 75% of the retail shops were shut and empty. Obviously nearby Ohakune has stolen the local limelight and one would have to say that Raetihi's future looks fairly bleak. However, we did find a cafe that claimed home made pies as its specialty. As we were fairly hungry after the arduous progression "up the ParaPara", we decided to risk it. Well, what an unlikely find. The pies were absolutely the best we had ever eaten anywhere, although pies aren't normally a regular part of our diet. But they were certainly good and very good value, unlike most of the meals we had had so far. Repleted we started the final part of today's journey to National Park - or thought we did! In fact we had inadvertantly (due to a very confusing road sign) taken the road to Pipiriki on the banks of the Wanganui River! We only realised this when the road started narrowing and steeply descending at the same time. Our nautical navigation skills certainly deserted us that time! As we were running short of time we reluctantly turned around as it would have been interesting to see the Wanganui in these remote parts. In fact the Wanganui follows an intriguing path. It begins as a snow fed stream on the northern flanks of the Volcanic Plateau mountains then flows north to Taumarunui and then changes its course to flow south to the sea at Wanganui.

We eventually made it back to the road north and after about 35 kms arrived at National Park - just over 800 metres above sea level. This is the site of several accomodation venues which service the Whakapapa skifield on the slopes of Mt. Ruapehu. Included in this is the venerable old National Park Hotel which is now owned by Jean's nephew, Darren. He and his wife Joeline bought the old place about 2 years ago and really have their work cut out knocking it into acceptable shape to attract their share of the ski crowds. However, it was very comfortable in a homely way and we were accorded a very warm welcome. They have a collection of woofers (young foreign backpackers who earn their accomodation costs by working a set number of hours each day). Malaysia, the U.K. and Germany were some of the countries represented. While there was still some of the day left, we decided to take a quick trip up the mountain to the Top o' the Bruce. More nostalgia for Jim who recalled the stays at Tongariro Ski Club with his family of 3 girls who are all accomplished skiers with Rozanne having been a member of the Ruapehu Ski Patrol. On one memorable occasion when the then Prime Minister, Helen Clark visited the mountain she was taken to the summit and then elected to ski down. Rozanne was given the task of escorting her down and on the steep bits was literally hanging onto her by her waist band. Not many people can claim to have had the Prime Minister by the seat of the pants!! Then there was the 50th. Jubilee of TSC in 1981 when another Prime Minister, R.D. Muldoon, attended in his past capacity as the first Treasurer of the club. God knows how they got him up what was colloquially known as Heart Attack Hill to the lodge! In those far off days in the early 1930's (and before the lodge building had been built) the members used to travel down from Auckland by train disembarking at National Park in the middle of the night. Then they would be taken to the Chateau Tongariro where they stayed. The skiing consisted of walking up the mountain road for approximately half its present length carrying heavy long wooden skis on their backs. As the snowline was generally lower in those days they would then be able to ski, albeit gently by today's standards and would have been lucky to get more than 2 runs per day as initially there were no chair lifts, Pomas or even rope tows either! That was definitely doing it the hard way.

Then after a quick drink and a snack in the downstairs bar of the Chateau it was back to the pub at National Park. A very convivial time then followed with a BBQ involving all the woofers as well as Darren's family. Us old codgers went to bed fairly early as it had been a long day but the party, which was also a farewell for some of the woofers, went into the early hours.

There were some fairly quiet individuals the next morning (!) but we spritely old whatsits went for an early walk down to the railway station where Jim indulged his railway fantasies! A quick cup of coffee at another venue and then back to the pub for breakfast. The mountains looked grand with their snowcaps and a pristine blue sky. Then it was off to Ohakune to stay with Perry (Jean's son) and Tracie in Tracie's house which is a modern and very well equipped bach almost at the base of the Turoa road which leads up to the Turoa Skifield. Ohakune has evolved into a delightful village with a proliferation of more accomodation venues (some very swept up) and other ski related businesses.

More nostalgia for Jim who recalled the old Produce Markets Ltd. days in the 1960's before the Turoa Skifield even existed. Trips down there on the overnight train and being woken by the Guard 15 minutes out of Ohakune in the middle of the night; then out of a warm sleeper into the freezing winter night air and being met by PM's agent and delivered to the Ohakune Hotel. The next 2 days or so visiting the local growers, many of whom were Chinese whose forebears had come to NZ in the 1930's from the Canton area and cleared the native bush by hand. The Chans were a well known local family and some years later Jim remembered arriving in Ohakune by car about 9 one Sunday night a few years later and they were out digging carrots and parsnips under floodlights to catch the Auckland and Wellington markets before the next snowfall which had been forecast. Very industrious and friendly people. There were more than a couple of local Chinese weddings which were attended in various years. One of the elder Chans (Wai Chan) told Jim he remembered being in Canton in 1937 when the Japanese were bombing the city. He was lucky to get out and live in NZ for the rest of his life. 

We drove up the mountain road to Turoa and admired the views! Certainly the installations there are more impressive than Whakapapa which is older and has grown more like topsy. But like Whakapapa the snowline had receded and there was no snow at the base of the main chair lift. We drove about halfway down the road nursing the brakes as it is very steep near the top and the previous day they had become very hot on the descent from the Top o' the Bruce! We stopped at the start of a walk into some falls and had a very scenic walk for a couple of hours including a boardwalk over an alpine swamp. As it was then getting late we returned to the car and carried on down the road into Ohakune again. By then Perry and Tracie had returned from their snow boarding and we all enjoyed one or two vodka and ginger beers!! Had a great catchup with them and a very enjoyable BBQ.

The next morning (Sunday) a leisurely breakfast and then took our leave of P & T and headed back to National Park to pick up Kayne who is Darren's son. He is 17 and was trying to get to Kerikeri to attend a selection interview at the Culinary Institute just out of Kerikeri to gain admittance to their 2 year course to train to be a chef. There was a tearful farewell with some of the woofers (!) and then we were heading north. Another good day and we stopped at a cafe at the northern end of Taumarunui. Enjoyed the company of a number of aged bikers on their highly polished Harleys. Then an uneventful trip to Huntly where we bought some food for dinner and on to Heather and Magan's at Tuakau again. They were there when we arrived and we had a chat with them before they left for Auckland. We stayed the night, then left the next morning for Whangarei. We took Kayne as far as that and he was catching a bus the next day for Kerikeri. We have heard from him since and he reckoned the interview went well although he won't know the result for a few days.

We had an important mission in Auckland on the way through. We had taken the old tiller originally from Jim's Dad's old 18' launch "Jado" (built in 1958) on our travels and intended to give it to Kerrin Worsfold (by great coincidence a relative of Jean's) who is restoring the old boat and is fanatical about keeping her as original as possible. So we stopped in Westharbour and presented him with the tiller. He had also just in the last few days been presented with their 3rd. child - another boy. Not sure which he was more excited about!!! Then continued on up SH16 and stopped on the outskirts of Wellsford and had some homebrew with Keith and Eileen at their small farm where they are raising some 50 calves. As always a fairly hilarious interlude!

It's good to be back on the boat again and she was fine. We are now getting ready for our next adventure. We leave on Nov. 8th. for Singapore and Malaysia and will return on the 23rd. We fly to Singapore and after 2 nights there we are catching the train to Tampin which is near Malacca and is where we are picking up a rental car. Then we are winging it to Penang and Langkawi to have a good look around in preparation for when we will eventually arrive there on the Tiare Taporo III. We don't know exactly when that will be be but hopefully not too far in the future - at our age we tend to get a bit obsessed with "the future"!!

Well, that's it for now. We'll try and keep in touch from Malaysia but won't have lots of time so it may have to wait for our return and another book sized blog!

Cheers for now,

J & J(G)