In-flight Refreshment on State Highway 1
16th April, Taihape to Wellington, New Zealand
We woke up bright and early this morning, got the camper van back into shape and continued on towards Wellington. We had a 5pm deadline to deliver this 'relocateable' to the depot, but we figured it would be nice to get into Wellington and have time to drive around a little, drop all our bags off at a backpackers, have a bite to eat and still make it on time. However, within no time we were pulling over for a break. Well, we saw this sign and just had to stop:
About 14 years ago some crazy person decided that it would be good idea to hoist an old DC3 aircraft at the side of State Highway 1 in Mangaweka and sell teas, coffees and cakes there. I thought to myself, what would the bank manager have thought when that business plan was submitted? Cue cheesy pun: they must have hoped the venture would 'take off'. Yeah, sorry about that. Anyway, a few years ago it got a facelift and is now sponsored by a cookie company. The entire plane is now covered in chocolate chip cookies ( a very good job they've done with it too). We opted for scones with our teas and coffees, and then I went into frenetic photo-taking mode, even taking a photo of another photo that adorned the wall: Lord of the Rings' Sam, Frodo and Gollum (aka Sean Astin, Elijah Wood and Andy Serkis) who had also stopped off for a light in-flight snack.
Inside the Cookie Air
Café.
Once we finally got to Wellington, we had major problems trying to find accommodation. There seemed to be nothing available, and we thought that the Easter bookings would no longer present such problems (it turned out that there was a rugby game on and whole bus-loads of fans can turn up, quickly taking any available beds in the city). Finally, though, we found a place in a guesthouse that was more expensive than we had hoped for, but was at least available (we took the last room).
I then had to take the camper van back out of the city to the depot. When Maui rentals said that it was a relocateable from Auckland to Wellington, that was almost true. The depot was actually about 20kms north of Wellington, in a place called Porirua, and there were hideous traffic jams on the way there. Thankfully my route back in to Wellington was much easier - I asked one of the people at the van depot what the easiest way into Wellington was, and was told to catch the train. Then, a lad in his early twenties who was arranging a rental said that he and his girlfriend were heading in to the city and that they could give me a lift. I jumped at the chance, and discovered that Ben (for that was his name) was from Southampton (my place of origin), and he must count as the first person I've met who has correctly placed my accent ... although he was wavering between Southampton and Portsmouth. Ben was travelling around New Zealand with girlfriend Abbey and they seemed like a really nice couple. I joked that we might bump into each other in the South Island if we got ourselves a camper van too. But I was going to bump into at least one of them a lot sooner than that ... Abbey, designated driver for the day, dropped me off right outside the guesthouse - now how's that for service? Did I leave a tip? Yeah sure I did, and was this: "Check out our web site" ;-)