Roadtrip post in 'actually posted' shock

(Music: A day away-Shihad)
So anyway, as Fishy and Not-Kate, and Morgue have related, some of us Hutt types plus an honorary ‘Hutt person for a day’ (yes Not-Kate I am talking about you!) went on a roadtrip of sorts to celebrate the Queens Birthday holiday. I confess it was my idea. I thought, rather than just laze around on my day off, why not do something. I decided to go to the Wairarapa, despite my publicly stated disdain for the region, to check out a few things. Like maybe the Stonehenge. Or Cape Palliser. “Hang on a minute!” I can hear my army of readers cry, “The Wairarapa is not the Horowhenua. It is not as the others described it. It has no windmill. It has no fox town. It certainly has no Levin!” And they would be right.
I decided to go to the Wairarapa midweek. I sent out a shout out to the regular crew to see if anyone wanted to come with. I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of people did. A plan was tentatively planned. By Saturday it was altering as bad weather loomed, by Monday it was ditched as bad weather arrived. It came to consist of one word: ‘north’. And lo we did venture north on a cold winter’s day.
The others have covered the guts of it pretty well. I’ll delve into the stuff they left out. Like why, as we approached El Rancho, was a police car leaving? Apart from that, the place was pretty much as I remembered it from the 80’s. Due to the number of people, we were in two cars. Those in the fishtank got the ambience of glorious company; those in my ride got the better stereo. Morgue was stoked to hear the ‘new’ Nirvana single a couple of years late, which up to that point he had not heard. We made plans at Waikanae. A seat rotation was established to swap people between cars. Not Kate resolved to show us the delights of her hometropolis Levin. The backroads of Waikanae were aimlessly explored. SH 1 was rejoined in a glorious wheelspinning drag launch for D3vo’s benefit, after which we stopped to let the others catch up. Which they very quickly did, so quickly we didn’t notice. We caught up at Otaki, where the outlet shops were also aimlessly explored. Levinotron was decided on as a venue for lunch. After exploring the slightly sinister statue (I don’t know why he is sinister, he just is. What is he cultivating? Why is his hoe so shiny? Why is he so tall?) of the market gardener. Then we tried to have lunch. Morgue was unenthused, Anna was confused, D3vo was forgotten, and then mistaken for someone else, and I got ripped off. Fishy alone had a proper dining experience, even if only in the sense that she got what she ordered on time. Leaving the chaos behind, and quickly visiting the windmill, we went to Foxton beach to commit science. And science was committed. It wasn’t the spectacular erupting science we had hoped for, but it was fun science. After the science we arsed around for a bit in the bitter cold. Sticks were thrown at other sticks. Larger sticks were hurled. Litter was killed. Delicate and at times perilous balancing acts were performed. Stuff was written in the sand.
Returning to Levin, we were taken to Not-Kate’s Dads place, and treated to coffee and biscuits by her stepmum. Finally, as the day was waning , we had accomplished all we sought out to do, and we had other places to be, home was sought, via a brief post sunset soiree at the Paekakariki Hill lookout.
Words for pictures
Top left: The fishtank warps out of Otaki
Lower left: Market Gardeners. Sinister
Right: Crew arrives at Foxton Beach, science on their minds. Colder than it looks.
Bottom: This science brought to you by Diet Coke and Mentos