Day 20 - Wellington(s)

​Today included the longest drive of the trip - from Taupo to Wellington - so it was an early start, and a fairly quiet first couple of hours of the drive south as we all woke up! Whilst we had plenty of the lush green hills that we have become accustomed to on the North Island, we also went through a big area of tussock today. It came as no surprise to me that it is a big training area for the NZ army, as it looked absolutely brutal, especially as it falls within Tongariro National park, so there are plenty of mountains and big hills for the soldiers too!

Our first stop of the day was in Taihape - the home of gumboot throwing, otherwise known as ’welly wanging’ in the UK. We obviously had a competition. My first throw was decent, but after my second (a terrible daisy cutter), I have decided that I should probably retire from the sport. 

We were all more awake for the next part of the drive, so not only had more of an NZ history lesson from Kreig, but also played ‘two truths and a lie’ to pass the time, whilst also enjoying the scenery.

Our lunch stop was at the Le Gra winery - a really small vineyard and winery run by a couple who moved out to the countryside for the good of their very ill daughter. What is very cool is that the logo on their bottles has a heart in the middle to represent their daughter, who they say is at the centre of everything they do, and then there is a ring for each year of her life so far. It is therefore an evolving logo, with each year’s wine having an extra ring.

With husband Brian away, Nicky fed us all an incredible lunch and told us their story, whilst also providing a wine tasting (of all eleven wines!) for those who wanted.

Full of food (and, in some cases, wine), we hit the road again - on this leg of the journey Kreig got us all to sing our national anthems, as the group is from so many different countries. Luckily Viktoria only sang one verse of the 158 of the Greek national anthem…

The next stop was Rivendell - one of the many sites from the filming of Lord of the Rings. We had a lot of fun filming videos (and finding a geocache!) and generally having a wander.

Finally, in the late afternoon, we made it into Wellington. Wellington is officially the windiest city on the planet, but it was actually very calm and sunny when we arrived. We checked into the hotel and ate a rather mediocre meal at a nearby restaurant, before some of us went to a local theatre to see ‘Skwert’ - a comedy musical. It is not every day that one gets to see ‘a boy band murder mystery.’

It was certainly not polished, but it was very funny!