Today is travel day – or I guess we should say travel night! We are up and out early (as usual) – walk to the beach, have our last Hazelnut coffee at the market, then back to the cottage to finalize the packing. With our flight out at 9:35, we’ve got lots of time to fill.
We eat lunch at the cottage (use up all those left overs – Poke, chicken, sausage), then head out over toward the airport. Our plan is to hit the movies to take up some time, so we go to the Pearlridge cinemas in the Pearlridge mall. Easier said than done. That mall is huge – and it is in 3 separate monstrous buildings. Separated by a monorail I might add! Jeez. So, we find the first mall building. Wrong building. We even had to call the theater to find out where they were. Then just by dumb luck we actually found the correct parking deck – and voila! Finally, we arrive in time for the millions of dumb previews (dumb movies and dumb by the fact that the trailers tell you the whole movie plot – so why bother going?). Anyway, we saw Silver Linings Playbook, thoroughly enjoyed it, highly recommend it, and then headed to Chili’s for a quick happy hour cocktail.
Time wasted, we headed back to the airport, dropped the car, checked in and hung out at the United Club for a couple of hours – swilling beer and wine and munching on cheese and crackers – oh – and chocolate covered pretzels! Oh BAD!!!!
Flight took off right on time, food good, wine better (Brancott SB! One of my fav’s!), I slept, Ed only a little bit. So, what can you do?
We arrived early (5:30 AM on Wednesday—Tuesday has vanished into thin air above the International Date Line), got through passport control, customs, bags came (phew!) then onto the car rental shuttle and we were on our way by 6:45. Smooth as silk!
So – off we go on our driving on the left side adventure! Fortunately, the first few miles are easy – it’s all left turns and roundabouts, so Ed gets his feet (and arms – LOL) wet and we are off.
We are heading to New Plymouth, a little seaside town that is a great jumping off spot for the Taranaki region – a legendary Maori (original native) area with lots to do and see and hike! The drive is pretty long – especially since we’ve just touched down after a red-eye sleepless flight – and we’re (the royal we!) driving on the left.
After leaving Auckland, the roads (called “highways”) are little more than 2 lane affairs winding through gorgeous countryside and little teeny towns. You’ll have to take our word for the beauty of it, because, well, we’re going like 80 – 100KM and there is nowhere safe to stop for pictures. So trust us when we say, it’s gorgeous – more cows and sheep than people and cars – the temperatures are about 75, clouds/sun, just a beautiful day for a drive.
We head through the center of the North Island – and then veer to the coast as we head toward New Plymouth. Here – we could actually stop for photos! The rocky coastline is romantic and “moorish” – and there’s Ed on the “wrong” side of the car, and oh yeah, me with my hiking boots!
It takes us a little over 4 hours to get to New Plymouth. We find the Pukekura Motor Lodge without any problems, right on the main road out of town toward the mountains. It’s a superb location – minutes from downtown New Plymouth and on the main road to the mountains or the seaside. We check in and get a great room – on the end upstairs with views to the Tasman sea!
Bags stowed, we head downtown for lunch. The town is adorable – little streets lined with shops and restaurants, parallel and diagonal parking. Just like Main Street USA – but Main Street New Zealand since we’re on the left side! We sort of wander around the main street, looking at different restaurants we’ve read about on TripAdvisor. It’s pricey here! Burgers are anywhere from 17 to 22 NZ (which equates to $13 to $18 US). Hmmmmm……we end up at one of the Thai restaurants with lunch specials for 11.50 NZ (9.20 US). Good choice – I have the Cashew chicken and Ed has the Beef with Broccoli – both excellent. We’re full and happy – and now off to the grocery store for supplies!
We've shopped, organized, un-packed, re-packed, sat on our little porch/balcony with our wine and beer from the grocery store, showered (AWESOME SHOWER) – and now we’re ready to go have dinner. Off we go to downtown – and actually find a great parking space near the restaurant we have chosen: Our Place. It’s a cute little tavern type of place with shared plates for 45NZ (yeah, well).
It’s sort of Tapas on steroids here. The shared platters come in all varieties – all meat, all seafood, mix, vegetarian, all sound great. We choose the mixed platter that comes with bacon wrapped scallops and prawns, salmon, pork belly, steak, vegetable skewers and potatoes we really don’t want, but are really, really good!
We sit outside and munch and drink. Great atmosphere, really cute inside venue as well –with record albums on the wall! Just like Char-Bar in HHI! Will have to show John the pix when we get back!
Dinner done, we go to pay (FYI, NZ protocol is you pay at the bar – you can ask the waiter for the check all night long, but you’ll never get it until you go to the bar!), and the food was only 25NZ – guess it was a Happy Hour special or something! We’re stoked – were happy with 45 – but 25? We’ll take that!
Back up the street to the hotel – porch sitting, night cap drinking, call it a day – a very good first day in New Zealand!
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