Friday 10 May 2013

Tukituki Motel at Waipukurau

State Highway 2 heading South from Napier took us past Hastings and on down to the Central Hawkes Bay area.

A pleasant drive.

At Waipukurau we stopped at the first Motel we saw.
The Tuki Tuki Motel.
Named after the Tukituki River.

The first pic is from the Motel carpark across the road to distant hills.


The kitchen, dining and lounge area was quite cosy and adequate for our needs.


And the bedroom was lovely.


And we even had our own patio dining area.


Tony was happy that his Prado was undercover. 


That's 'our' Motel room on the left.
And the obligatory Peanut Prado photos follow.


Peanut


We stayed at the Tuki Tuki Motel most of the week. 
Very clean and tidy place and the owners were very helpful.

There was one problem, but it wasn't the Motel itself that was at fault.
There was a new petrol station being built on the side road by the Motel, and the workers started work rather early in the morning. Lorries and trucks carrying all manor of equipment were being unloaded. Cement mixer lorries tipping their load at 6 or 7am is not funny when you are on holiday.

We are not used to traffic noise either, so that also disturbed our sleep a bit, even though the road was not a main road or a busy road, it still had some cars on it.




Monday 29 April 2013

The Thermal Explorer Route

From Tirau to Taupo on State Highway (SH) 1, then uphill on the scenic 
Thermal Explorer Route on SH5 where we see steam escaping from crevices in the hills. This is the area for lots of underground thermal activity. 


Up into the clouds once more.


We have a rest stop at the Opepe Memorial, Iwitahi, and had a quick look at the Opepe Bush Walk. As this bush is quite high in the hills it is rather damp and sub-tropical, especially as the clouds are lying low right now.


Back in the car again and on route to Napier, we head higher and higher into the mountain range and through Tarawera, Te Haroto, and Glengarry.

We now seem to have driven right into the clouds. Rather a lot of rain up here. An occasional break in the clouds give us a glimpse of beautiful scenery, but it's not light enough to take photos, and there is no way I'm getting out of the car in this weather.





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Hawkes Bay - Let The Fun Begin

Heading down the Southern motorway (SH1) from Auckland, then, just before Pokeno we turned onto SH2 until we reached Paeroa (famous for L&P - which is a lemon & paeroa fizzy drink that mixes exceptionally well with Martini or Whisky instead of lemonade). 
From Paeroa we turned onto SH26 which took us through Te Aroha, and then onto SH27 through Matamata and eventually ending at Tirau.

The road between Paeroa and Tirau usually has a great view of the Kaimai mountain range, but the day we took our journey the clouds were piling up against the mountains and obliterated the tops from our view. 
It was a bit on the dull side for taking photos, but here they are anyway. 
Taken from the moving car, so I apologize for the blurred parts.



The clouds were caught by the mountains and were too heavy to climb over the mountains, so they sort of 'tumbled down'. It was quite a weird sight. Almost as though heaven and earth were about to collide. Eerie!



When we arrived at Tirau we were ready for lunch.
We tried the Alley Cat Cafe on this visit. Tony had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich that came with a lovely home made chunky tomato sauce, and I had a vegetarian quiche (spinach and  brie) that came with a home made sweet Thai chilli sauce. 
We had our usual drinks, mocha for Tony, and a Chai Latte tea for me. And all this came to only $23.
Then, replenished, we went for a little stroll around the town.

Tirau is well known for it's corrugated iron (or is it steel) structures, sculptures and decorations all over the town. It is a big tourist attraction.

These Dog and Sheep building sculptures are the main crowd pullers. The Dog building houses the Tourist Information Centre, and the Sheep Building has a craft and clothing shop in it as well as a cafe area.







The Tirau Co-operating Church has joined in the corrugated sculpture fun as well. This church is next door to the Dog building. 

In their front garden, next to their signage, they have erected a huge corrugated shepherd, which is rather apt for the sheep-dog theme.






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