Chapter 180: Adventures with “Hefty Hazel” Part Two

We began our second week of exploring with Hefty Hazel by heading down the New Zealand Wine Trail to Martinborough. The views were stunning, it felt like we were driving through the shire! We stopped at Tui Brewery on the way.  The brewery has been brewing beer since 1889 at their location on the Mangatainoka River.  The beer is famous in New Zealand and is closely associated with Kiwi culture, especially rugby.  It was a great beer and a great stop enroute to the Top 10 campground in Martinborough.

Martinborough is located at the southern tip of North Island in the Wairarapa region.  It is known as a boutique wine village, renowned for producing world class, Burgundy-style Pinot Noir. There are over 20 small family owned wineries within walking distance of the town center and our campsite.  We ended up staying two nights in Martinborough and enjoyed the restaurants and the quaint town.  We visited the Haythornthwaite Wines for a wine flight. It was a gorgeous spot with outdoor seating overlooking the vineyards. Their 2022 Pinot Noir – Catherine was excellent as well as their 2017 Pinot Gris – Ursula.  Definitely a great producer and glad we were able to visit!

We left Martinborough midday on Tuesday and headed to Kaitoke Regional Park. We had a great night staying at a campsite by the river, listening to the water flow over the rocks. This park was the filming location for Rivendell and the Fords of Isen in The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. While the original sets are not there, they have great signage and you definitely can feel the magic of the elves! 

On Wednesday, we got up early and decided to head for the southernmost lighthouse on North Island, Cape Palliser lighthouse.  The drive was not for the faint of heart but definitely one of the most scenic so far! First, we had to drive a mountain pass behind a logging truck- quite a sight to see! When we reached the coastal road it got even more interesting as it was very narrow and parts of it were gravel.  But the best part was the wildlife.  There were so many seals along the coast on the rocks and the beaches.  We even saw some babies.  Sadly, we did not see any penguins even though there were penguin crossing signs! The lighthouse was impressive mainly because of the many stairs to get up to it!

After our coastal exploration, we headed into “Windy Wellington” for the day.  Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand and is known for its location on the southern tip of North Island and the Cook strait which makes it very windy. It is the world’s windiest city by average wind speed! It definitely has the feel of a bigger cosmopolitan city with lots of restaurants, shopping, and the arts.  Our first stop was to take a trip on the iconic funicular railway, the Wellington Cable Car. The original cable car was designed in 1889 and was used to provide transportation to the upper part of the city, the Kelburn hillside,  so the area could be developed as a residential area.  Today, it serves as a great tourist attraction with its museum and spectacular views of the city and the harbor from 120 meters above sea level!

Our next Wellington adventure was to visit the Weta Workshop.  The workshop is a company of artisans and innovators who have been creating and working in the arts, entertainment, and experience industries for over 30 years.  They bring their expertise to film, television, game development, and other immersive experiences.  We took a behind the scenes tour and got to learn how they make films come to life with props, costumes, sets, and much more.  They have been the creative minds behind many, many films including such classics such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Avatar movies, King Kong, The Avengers, the Hobbit Trilogy, Thor, Black Panther, Tron, and many more.  It was so cool to see and be able to touch some of the props from these incredible films and even see some of the artisans at work.  Definitely a great tour to take!

Thursday took us to Whanganui and to a campsite right on the Whanganui river downtown.  It was a charming little city where we were able to visit the New Zealand Glassworks and the Whanganui Regional Museum.  The museum was so well done and provided so much information on Maori culture and how it has evolved over the years.  We had a great lunch at a local Indian restaurant and even found a great ice cream shop.

We ended the week by visiting Mount Taranaki and one of our favorite campsites, North Egmont Retreat.  The views of Mount Taranaki from the campsite were unbelievable plus it was a working farm so we got to hang out with the cows and sheep!  Mount Taranaki is a dormant stratovolcano.  It has a near perfect cone shape, so it is often compared to Japan’s Mount Fuji.  While my hip was improving, it still wasn’t completely better so we did a shorter hike with great views of the summit. We were fortunate that the clouds did move out so that we got a great view of it. It was a great way to end the week being able to sit outside the van at our campsite that night and enjoy the amazing views while we had dinner. Definitely a highlight of week 2!