Monday 29th January – Wellington and a Whitsunday reunion

We had an easy morning as we had covered the ground well yesterday.  The washing machine at the campsite was free so we made the most of the opportunity, but there was no dryer so we had to wait around for our clothes to dry.  Luckily, there was no need to check out until 2pm and it was nice to have some down time off the road.  We also did some booking.  The rest of our time on the North Island is very short, so we booked the most important things for the rest of the week.

We continued our drive south towards Wellington via the east side of the Rimutaka range:

This was the site of the Rimutaka crossing, the march of 60,000 NZ troops traversing the mountain range between 1915-1919 to reach Wellington and join the War. This memorial was unveiled on the centenary in 2015 when a re-enactment of the crossing was also held.

It was whilst we stopped at the memorial that we discovered we were about to stumble upon another Lord of the Rings treasure.  The Kaitoke Regional Park contains Rivendell, a very important filming location in the rings trilogy, as it is where the Fellowship of the Ring was formed and began their treacherous journey towards the fires of Morrrrrrrdorrrrrrr (spelt phonetically). 

Rings height chart - Simon is taller than Gandalf apparently!

A lot of the buildings in Rivendell were created with the help of CGI but there are maps on the site showing relevant locations in relation to the position of the trees that appeared in the film and still remain:

In addition, they have recreated the archway that the fellowship walk through so visitors can fully get their geek-on by re-enacting this piece of movie history. 

Even without an interest in seeing Rivendell, this was a beautiful park to visit and there were many people enjoying the sunshine and having a swim in the icy cold rivers:

During our Whitsunday tour back in January (feels so long ago already!) and everyone’s discussions about their plans, we had discovered that Andy and Sasha, fellow Brits, were due to be heading to Wellington for a while to find work. We had kept in touch and arranged a mini reunion for this evening. More camping research had identified that you can park overnight on the waterfront in the City, making it very convenient for a couple who may want to meet friends for a drink… or five! We reached the parking lot at the harbour in Wellington (or Welly to the locals!) about 515pm, parked up, paid $30 for 24 hours parking and set the van up in ‘privacy mode’, ie: velcro’d all of the curtains and blinds up so that we wouldn’t have to face it when we arrived home a bit the worse for wear in a few hours.

Ready and waiting for our drinking buddies

We met Andy and Sasha in a bar called The Establishment (right) where they sold happy hour $5 pints and $9 jugs all night.  It had cheap food too. We were joined by other backpackers from the hostel they’re staying in, some other Brits and a couple of Dutch guys.  We thought we’d better go to more than just one bar so we went to explore another couple, finding a cheap sports bar and then a cool bar with a caravan ‘snug’ that we all sat in…. You’d have thought we’d had enough of spending time in a caravan/camper but apparently not!

Ahh, the caravan of good times!

We shared many jugs of beer and Sasha and I went on to vodkas as we started filling up on beer too much!  My head started to hurt and we’d all spent enough money for one night so we bid our farewells and wished them all luck getting work in the City.  We felt a little jealous – they all have long-term visas, so they are not in the rush that we are to cram things in.  At the same time, they are now low on cash so have to work for a few months before they can go exploring anymore – it’s a tricky one, which way would you rather travel?

We stumbled back to the van, I took some preventative painkillers and went to bed.  For a car park, it was impressively quiet.