Day 42 - This is The Day!

Thursday, November 14th, 2013

Today we picked up our rental car and began exploration of North Island. We've been pretty apprehensive about driving here. It was decided that I have the most recent city driving experience, so would take on the first day. After going twice around our first city roundabout before catching our exit, and many instances of turning on the windscreen wipers instead of the signal light, everything went very well. Yes, riding as a passenger on the left side of the road for the past 6 weeks has made the transition a bit easier for us than if we'd tried to drive immediately.

We brought a GPS with us and it worked well, confirming Tina's map reading and navigating skills. We stopped in Stokes Valley for a lovely visit with my sister-in-law, Efi. We only discovered it was her birthday when her son, Steven and his wife, Elaine, dropped in. How nice it was to see Steve again after almost 30 years! Steve lived with us in Kitimat in 1984 and '85 and worked in all areas of the hand-logging operation with his Uncle Whetu.

After leaving Stokes Valley, we made our way through the Tararua Mountain foothills and up winding roads on New Zealand's classic wine trail to Martinborough where the specialty is Pinot Noir and 3 varieties of white wines. Instead of visiting many wineries for tastings, we were able to visit the Martinborough Wine Center where all the local wines are available for tasting. It's great to be able to taste, and compare, the same wine made by the various vintners. We both prefer red wine to white and neither of us is fond of Pinot Noir, so we left the center without wine. But the area is also known for olives and olive oils, so we tasted some of those (beautiful!) and left with a few bottles of different oils and other items for future distribution.

We continued up the wine trail to Masterton for the night where we luxuriated in a huge room and found a great dinner to celebrate our successful first day on the road.