Wairarapa

Because of the long bank holiday weekend, we decided to hire a car and go for a bit of day trip today. We drove to region called the Wairarapa, just north east of Wellington. After driving up to Taranaki a few weeks ago on State Highway 1 (single carriageway road with traffic lights and roundabouts), we didn't hold out much hope for State Highway 2, the 'other road' out of the city.  We'd been on it for about 20 minutes, when the scenery changed and became quite......hilly.  Needless to say, the road also then became a little less straight, as you can see below!

Satellite view of the road

Messing around with the 3D view on the iPad maps



The countryside out in the Wairarapa was beautiful, and actually reminded us a lot of home (green hills and lots of sheep). We drove out to the East Coast to Castle Point, and went for a coastal walk. It was so windy that you could lean right into the wind without falling over, but the views were lovely and it was great to get out in the fresh air.

New Zealand (Or Cornwall?!)



The scarf is to show how windy it was!

Perfect Sets of Waves

From here, we drove down to Martinborough, which is well known for its wineries. We decided not to go for any tastings this time, and instead went to a really cool little cinema. It was very small, and allowed you to take in glasses of wine - all very civilised.