[Nz2003] Wanganui -> Blenheim

[Edmund A. Hintz]

Cheers,

    After a morning visit to our motel by a praying mantis, we departed
Wanganui for Wellington. Stopped at Ohakea Air Force base, watched some
training maneuvers of the RNZAF, and checked out their museum. Neat
stuff, lots of NZ related aviation history. They had a A4 Skyhawk to
climb around on as well, though they no longer operate them. They had
originally planned to purchase a bunch of F-16s but they cancelled the
purchase in 2000, and disbanded the fighter squadrons altogether in 2001.
They do have a exchange program with the RAF so there are a few kiwis who
will likely take part in the Iraq garbage, but as brits. NZ itself will
have no forces in theater, and in fact voted down a motion by 2 of the
conservative parties to join the US in the current attack, the other 5
parties are against the thing. Our kind of people... Anyway, the NZRAF
currently operates a small fleet of C-130 transports, 2 727s which will
be replaced this year by 757s, and something like 14 UH-1H Hueys-we got
to watch them training in one of them while at the museum. After that we
continued on down to Wellington, where we stayed the night at the Bucket
Tree motel. It was once a farm, but the city has swallowed it up, a good
portion of the grounds were converted to public park, and the old farm
building became the motel. I had a bit of excitement here, as my laptop
power adapter started emitting attractive blue sparks; a bit of
exploratory work with my Schrade tool isolated the issue to worn
insulation allowing it to short. A few choice cuts of wire and plastic
plug later I had an ugly but serviceable adapter-both wire ends twisted
together like a crappy car stereo installation. We  caught another sunset
(with the sun going down behind the South Island mountains on the
opposite side of Cook Strait) just north of Wellington, photos are below.
One might get the impression that we like watching sunsets over the ocean, eh?

    We got a little more playtime in at the public park before checking
out of the motel, then found our way down to the ferry terminal and
boarded the Aratere for the trip accross Cook Strait. We're quite
fortunate to have caught it on a nice day; this ferry ride can be quite
bumpy in bad weather, but seas are calm and temps are in the 70's so it's
quite comfortable. The scenery outside the ferry is quite fantastic,
South Island seems to climb up out of Cook Strait, a rugged coastline
with forests all about. The mountains pop up, layer after layer, shrouded
in mist, just like one would expect Brigadoon to look. It's really quite
fantastic, but words don't do it justice, the photos will have to speak
for it. On arrival in Picton, we couldn't find anyplace to stay, so we
headed to Belnheim, and found a inexpensive motel for the night. Also
found a grocery store and had our first home cooked meal of the trip.
Most welcome after so many nights of eating out. 

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https://www.hintz.org/photos/private/3-20-people/

Regards,

Ed Hintz
ed@hintz.org