Okay so tonight I am back in Palmerston North. A whole day earlier then planned but I should be able to get more work done up here then in Wellington.

I came back up to Palmerston North with two other friends and because the weather was good; we decided to go over the Rimutakas and through the Manuwatu Gorge (see yesterday’s blog for other comments).

Looking South from the top of the Rimutaka Road

A zoomed shot looking south.

Brad on the top of the Rimutaka Hill looking to the north.

Brad back in the car before driving off. Looking sideways at friend who is taking a photo of him drinking water. How odd.

Snow, glorious snow on the top of the Rimutakas.

The wind turbines (Tarauras) as seen from Woodville.

The amazing Manuwatu Gorge.

Well today has been a very long day.

I left Wanganui at 10am with the plan to be in Wellington a little after 1.30pm.

Normally it takes a little over two hours to get to Wellington from Wanganui but because I had the day spare I decided to head through the Manuwatu Gorge and Rimutakas for the fun of it.

My new GPS unit had a fun time trying to workout how to drive through the Gorge. It was determined to get me to drive to Palmerston North first, even though I had been told to go through Fielding, Bunnythorpe, and Ashurst. Normally when you go off the course it has plotted for you it just finds a new route. But not this time. It was determined that I turn around and go back to its planned route. When I didn’t it did everything possible to get me to drive through Palmerston North including just before the Gorge telling me to turn right and drive to Palmy.

The Gorge was abosolutely amazing to drive through. I would have loved for someone else to be with me to take photos. I will definately have to come back in summer with someone. Once through the Gorge I headed to Woodville and down State Highway Two to Mangatainoka where the Tui Brewary is located.

At around 12.30pm I stopped for lunch at Mc Donalds in Masterton. I got quite annoyed at the wait for a cheeseburger - it took twenty five minutes to be served.

Jumping back onto the road I headed south and through the Rimutakas. Again that was great fun - but I wished that I had someone else to take some photos. Although, it was slightly frustrating being stuck behind a slow moving car and then a truck.

Coming into Wellington I headed through Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt. If I was to ever move to Wellington I would live there. It looked like quite a nice place to live - particularly Lower Hutt.

I eventually arrived in Wellington a little before 3.30pm. Yes it had taken more then 5 hours for a trip that should have taken a little over 3. That was primarily due to Mc Donalds being useless, stopping briefly at the beer factory, and slow cars on the road with little room for passing.

Stayed tuned for the journey back on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday…

This afternoon I flew back from Wellington where I had gone for a quick holiday with my mom.

Flight down. NZ is called the land of the long white cloud for a reason. (sorry for the off colour this taken of course from a plane)

Mt Ruapehu peaking out above the clouds. (photo taken at 34,000 feet)

Zoomed in for a closer view.

Passing another plane. I believe this may be a Virgin Blue plane because closely zoomed it appears red.

After landing in Wellington the first thing we did was to rent a car and drive to the top of Mount Victoria. This is the view from the top looking back at the Airport.

Wellington Harbour from Mount Victoria

Central Wellington from Mount Victoria

After leaving Mount Victoria we headed to Parliament for a quick visit before having lunch at the Backbencher Pub. From there we headed up to the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. At the sanctuary we walked up to a dam and along the way met some interesting creatures.

This is from a lookout above the dam that we climbed to. Lots of fun. The Sanctuary is an awesome thing to have so close to the center of a city.

This is the fence that protects the Sanctuary from the rest of civilization.

After leaving the Sanctuary we went shopping in Lambton Key and Willis Street before checking into our hotel where we had dinner and afterwards went for a night time drive around the capital.

Mom at the top of Mount Victoria

A tired Brad at the end of the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary.

On the Sunday we had a midmorning flight to catch back so we headed to the airport by taking a detour through the city, around Oriental Parade and Miramar. On the flight back we got a really nice view of Mt Taranaki and the surrounding coastline.

However, before this story is compete there is one final twist in it. I the title of this post is the 24 hour Wellington Experience. And you cannot experience Wellington without being in an Earthquake. So at 3am this morning Wellington decided to a little jolt. It was enough to wake both me and mom up, first there was a loud bang and then the walls of the hotel moved twice before something fell over in the bathroom (probably a shampoo bottle) at the time both me and mom thought each other were asleep and both of us just went back to sleep and our suspicions about an earthquake were confirmed in the morning.

Quake Details

Information about this earthquake:

Felt in Wellington and Marlborough.

http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/2923267g.html

Got back from Wellington last night where I had been for a training seminar.

Firstly when I arrived at the Hotel in Wellington I was advised that I had been upgraded to a room with a balcony. Wow. This didn’t mean much to me as I was merely staying overnight and when I arrived it was already dark but it was still cool to be upgraded. I also enjoyed having breakfast delivered to the room being more cheap then actually going to the onsite restaurant for breakfast, both time saving and affordable. Despite the price being $170/night I would recommend Wellington Holiday Inn they provide a fantastic service.

My second change came when I went to fly back to Auckland last night. The flight that I was booked on was cancelled. At this news I was expecting a painful wait for a spare seat on another flight back. But instead big ups to Air New Zealand who managed to squeeze me onto another flight that departed 30mins earlier then my canceled flight. That is some fantastic service.