Anyone for a tea party? Off to Boston.

Up early and Eric is checking the weather; dry at least.  Our journey to Heathrow today should only take half an hour (traffic and the M25 permitting). 

Roads are kind to us and arrive for the flight in good time, going straight through security in a prompt and timely manner.  Although heart sinks as one bag is siphoned off for extra security checks on the liquids keeping up what seems to be becoming a regular occurrence, additional screening on the female of the species. 

Next comes a sit down breakfast.  Eric did think it was a bit too early for a G&T though.  Also, does Proscecco count as tonic? 

The flight starts very well, walk twenty minutes to gate, board almost immediately and the pilot advises that we should be in Boston ahead of schedule.  As a bonus, we soon discover that the flight may not be particularly crowded. We both have window seats and Eric occupies the space between us.

Is this the impact of Brexit on tourism to the USA? As you can see we have all 8 seats in row 40 so who needs to pay for extra legroom.

Settle down, watch a couple of films and it's soon time to land.  

Thought the vapour trail from the canard wing tip made an interesting picture.

Pilot assures us we will be landing in about fifteen minutes, but fifteen minutes later we are still at 7000 feet and seem to have done a loop and various turns.  The pilot is either lost or maybe we are in some random holding pattern.  As we eventually come in to land we are informed that the delay was because there was a cruise ship blocking entry to the runway - Reggie Perrin would have been proud of that excuse!  

Taxi towards parking spot but they are not quite ready for us.  Pilot advises we should be ready to disembark quickly and get to customs before the passengers from the Swissair plane that is behind us on the apron.  See the Swissair plane passing us on the inside while we await our spot, so much for that then.   

Whatever next - well, note from pilot, the airbridge is broken and the workman is looking for a spanner to fix it, which they weren't able to do. Not able to leave the plane until they find an alternative set of suitable steps.   These arrive and we have a rather wobbly exit onto the tarmac (the steps are very bouncy). 

Takes us quite a while to clear US Customs (understatement), one of us had to be fingerprinted and iris scanned twice (you'll never guess which one!). Finally reach accommodation for night to find they were not expecting us until tomorrow! Luckily they had a room for today anyway and won't charge us for cancelling tomorrow's bogus booking. 

Setting off

 Can there be a more exotic place to start a holiday than Bridgend railway station. 

Just Checking the Weather Forecast

At least there's no sign of that that hurricane. Maybe that's the rain for when we land on Tuesday.

Boston to Washington the Long Way Around

Flying Home

After a short drive we spent a few hours at the Auckland botanical garden.

Some interesting statues as well as the plants.

Extreme yoga I think

Then off to the airport after short a detour to fill up the hire car. Good old Avis try to charge us again for overrunning our rental. Their system can't cope either a hire of more than 31 days. Sorted after an hour discussion, then off to catch the plane. 

Eric thinks this is a good way to fly

Honestly it's a plane not a submarine

Don't have time to write much as we only have a short stopover at Brisbane before the long leg of the flight to Dubai - about 14 hours. 

Drive to Te Kauwhata and the Disappearing Wetlands

We have breakfast early today as we have a long drive to reach the last sleep of our holidays. One night on a chestnut farm about an hour south of Auckland. This will mean we don't have to drive through Auckland again, and can visit the Botanic Gardens on our way to the airport. 

We know the drive will be mostly through farmland but have found that there is one of those wetlands of International importance (Ramsar site) close to where we are staying. It is apparently the largest bit of wetland in the North Island, and home to Australasian Bittern, Spotted Crake and Marsh Crake amongst others. The leaflet tells us there is a National Wetland Visitor Centre due to open in 2007. We head for there first and then plan to do the 50km drive loop tour of the highlights outlined on the leaflet.

The drive is fairly uneventful, although initially we find ourselves close to the coast and with views of the sea far more frequently then we were expecting. Hey, who's complaining. 

The road eventually turns inland but the farmland is not flat at the moment.  There are more of those duvet hills, but this time with sharper edges. Some parts also look like The Peak District and Dartmoor. There are buttresses and wind-sculpted rocks.

We go past a sign for Waitomo Caves - I remember someone telling us that these are glow worm caves - apparently you can sit in a rubber ring and float through the caves in the dark - eeaargh - good job we missed those.  Also see the native NZ pampas grass. It is more yellow with drooping fronds. We had been told about it but this was our first sighting this trip. 

Look for somewhere pleasant to sit and finish off the remnants of food we have in the boot. Suddenly we are on a major highway - one with two lanes each side and a barrier in the middle, and it has a very smooth surface. Plus a cycle lane down the inside.  A novelty for us - First road we've seen like this in NZ.  Navigator says take next turn, follow this down small road over brow of hill and magically a picnic table appears alongside the river.  

Interesting snacking - crackers, butter, jam, cheese straws, kiwi fruit (one gold one green), water, a can of sprite and a Mars bar. Well at least the water and Kiwi Fruit are healthy!  

Keeps us going for a while and empties the car of excess rubbish.

Arrive at Rangiriri and stop at information centre to ask where Wetland Visitor Centre is.  Map on leaflet says on shores of Lake Kopuera.  

Although there is an iSite 'i' outside the building, the information centre is a laundry and appears to have no info. Ask some people outside where wetland centre is. They've never heard of it -  the one lady says there are wetland signposts and boards along the road to Te Kauwhata but knows nothing about a centre.  Fetch iPad to show them, it says it's on edge of this lake - lady still says, no, that lake is on private land and no access to it. Mmm-wonder what's going on here. Decide that as marker posts are there we will try following the tour loop. First stop works anyway, scenic viewpoint over Lake Waikere - board explains how it was formed - and then how it has been ruined by human activity - one of the most polluted lakes in NZ.  Tells us that there is another lake (Rotokawau) on the South Western shore, a peat lake, one of the best examples of it's kind - but the board informs us that you can't see it from here! Doesn't tell you if or where you can see it either. 

Manage to see the next point - oh, it's 400ha of land that used to be part of the Whangamarino Wetlands, but was drained and converted to pasture under a government subsidised swamp drainage scheme!  (when that was allowed, it wouldn't be anymore). 

Next we see a big green sign saying Whangamarino Wetlands and lots of bog and wetland just to the side of the road. Nowhere to stop, though can see what look like three or more hides in the middle of the bog (but no paths!)?????

Find the river about 500yards further along the road, a small gravel pull-in and a stile into the bog, but still no path. Without wellies not sure if safe to wander in. No information board here with map or anything else for that matter!

Moving on we look for signs of the 'good example of a restiad bog' here. The bogs in NZ are formed from rushes not Sphagnum moss, and apparently the restive bit refers to the type of rush. A fire burned 2000ha of the bog in 1989 but it recovered and resulted in good populations of the swamp helmet orchid, which is only found here.  Exciting. Apparently they are still here in smaller numbers, but of course we can't see them!  We can see some bog in the distance but much of the closer bit has been taken over by willow.

The next stop is a weir they have built to restore water levels - but we can't see this either! Give up on the tour and find accommodation for the night.  

Our hosts tell us that the intended National Wetland Centre was never in fact built - some local dignitary put a stop to it, allegedly. More long stories to tell here...will have to wait...go for dinner in a local tavern with our hosts.  On return - a NZ Hawk (Kestrel) flies over the garden - first sighting of this bird on the trip!

A New Day in New Plymouth

It looks like a glorious day ahead when we open the curtains to see...

 Anyone recognise the face on the mountain?

Having enjoyed our cycling in Napier it seemed only natural to sample the cycle pathway offered on the coast at New Plymouth. 

We head into town straight after breakfast making for the cycle hire at Strandon. Here the bikes are hired by the hour rather than day/half day as in Napier. Selecting suitable steeds we settle Eric in the bike carrier

Then take the advice of the hirer to head in the quieter direction towards the Te Rewa Rewa bridge. 

Wheee - this makes a good slide

There's that mountain again

The route was clearly the best option as we discovered later. 

A duck in the river, or more accurately on a rock in the river. A passer-by informed us it was a Whio, or Blue Duck. Whio not so sure as wrong sort of habitat (they like rushing rivers, which this one hardly is).  

Returning the cycles after an hour we decide that that's long enough, as the path is a lot busier than we would wish- it is a Sunny Saturday after all. 

We walk along the Coastal Walkway in the opposite direction toward the town, and find it to be both busy and distinctly undulating. Not "Alp D'Huez" you understand but it would have been hard work on the heavy hire bikes with only 3 gears. 

Along the way we see lots more of these butterflies.

Past the town and the wind sculpture and towards the port.

These boulders along the edge of the walkway make a great vantage point for Eric.

We make it to the port end of the walkway and discover a vegetarian specialist cafe. Seriously delicious cake and coffees ensue. 

The endpoint for the more adventurous is Paritutu Rock, a volcanic plug you can climb up.

We give this a miss - too full of cake + probably wouldn't make it the 6.5 km back to the car after climbing that!  Excuses, excuses.

After a good rest we make the return walk to the iSite tourist office to locate Pukekura park. It's a council managed garden close the the town centre but we need know exactly where. 

That mountain keeps cropping up so we take another photo. 

A sign at the start of this end of the walkway is handily labelled 'predicament' and as with all those choices it's a wonder there aren't hundreds of people around dithering about where to go. You may see it also mentions that mountain. They have obviously noticed it too.  

A new friend

Eventually we are headed for that furthest headland (after the park). It looks further in the picture than it actually is, we hope.

As we walk through the main town centre we spot some interesting art work. Another one of those 

Connecting Rings wind sculptures, as first seen on the marina in Auckland, only made out of spoked rings this time.

Eric has spotted something interesting across the road.

Obviously an Elephant 

Obviously something else but what??

At the entrance to the park there is a very smart looking cricket pitch  

Those stands look rather unusual

A closer look reveals that they are

Steeply banked earth terraces. Looks like it would be a very comfortable place to watch a game. 

Then we find the main lake. 

With a fountain

And a Poet's Bridge - there's that mountain in the background again

And a waterfall

The Pohutakawa are just starting to come out now we are nearly on our way home

At the bandstand in front of the lake there's a wedding. We seem to be colliding with these on a regular basis. 

Then the hot weather demands we have an ice cream  Feijoa and Pear sorbet is tasty if a little strong. 

We now need to have a bit of a relax before heading for the restaurant. 

We get back to the B&B and are greeted by the host demanding we have another Devonshire cream tea. We may not need a meal tonight but we have booked the table. 

After that we have a wander around the garden then head in to town for 7:30. 

The restaurant not only served excellent food, but also had a view over the wind sculpture and the sea. It was a bit too chilly to sit outside where we'd originally booked a table though!

Moving on tomorrow, so packing before bed.