Middle Earth Tour Day 24: Kawakawa train day and road trips

Middle Earth Tour Day 24: Kawakawa train day and road trips

This morning I thought it was going to be a wet day as it was overcast and menacing. A load of washing had been done as I was leaving tomorrow so that I could have some clean clothes until I leave on my flight Thursday afternoon. The clothes had being hung up inside as we didn’t know what would happen especially if it poured while we were away up the coast in Kawakawa. When we were in the car there were spots on the windscreen as we were leaving Whangarei. The clouds did hang around until we reached Kawakawa where the weather did start to clear up.

When we arrived into Kawakawa we knew that the first train had already left and we found that the train was just leaving the station. Once we did park I shouted a coffee for Claude and we were told once the train conductor came back them we could buy our train tickets. That was alright and after the coffee we went to have a look in the shop where I found two things I would like to buy though one of the things I would have to wait for until I get home as I can play CDs. One of the stories in the coffee shop was that train drivers would stop at the local hotel for a quick beer and sometimes forget that they have a train out the front, which I thought was funny. We decided to take a wander through the town and one of those places was one of the sights people come to Kawakawa for and that is the public toilets known as The Hundertwasser Toilets. I have seen them before, but they are pretty cool and I think many of the tourist buses seem to stop here also. Another place is called Amazespace with different things in a small area like maze that has mosaics all over the place in different designs. Some of it had been closed off due to a land slip out the back and it was all interesting though was a little bright with the sun blaring down on the mirrors. During this time the train was making its way back to the station through town as it runs in the middle of the main road. I went to look at the building that was the museum and library and Claude vanished down the road. It had been lucky that I had seen him vanish into the bakery and I found him there where I chose a pie I wanted for lunch.

We both walked back to the train station where we observed on the way several people on bikes riding out of town. It was mentioned that it was funny when they took their helmets off that they usually had grey hair and I thought it was funny too. Once we got to the station we bought our tickets and waited for the train to start moving as it was leaving at 12 and would be gone for an hour before returning to its destination. Once on the train I went out from the closed carriage to the open air platform where it was less uncomfortable especially since it was a nice day outside. The train goes as far as the bridge at Taumarere, which isn’t far up the road. In the last couple of weeks bridge 5 just before you got to Taumarere had been damaged from some floods and recently been reopened. Taumarere was a thriving town as they were sources of coal and were loaded onto the boats from the trains. The line has been moved since the area is a flood plain and now there was the one we are currently on that takes us further on if we have a bike as most of the trail follows the Kawakawa River as there is a dedicated cycle trail. The rail line had been in the area before Kawakawa had been built and is why the lines goes through the middle of town. The remnants of Taumarere can still be seen like the local church that had been bought from Paihia and then the stone church there had been built, the raceway for the horse track is a round paddock. The conductor was actually pretty interesting as he was telling us all this including the work that needed to be done on the long wooden bridge that was going to happen soon. The work is going to take around a year to complete and then the trains are allowed to cross the bridge. The conductor did say that he liked history and that the information series that is on the walls of the Taumarere station is actually one of the books for sale in the shop. While he had been talking to us all the engine was turning around so that it could take us back to town at the other end of the carriages. An interesting fact is that the train is he only one in the world to cross the state highway directly.

Once the train go back to Kawakawa  I found we were allowed to walk around the sheds where the trains were kept. I had my book and CD with me so I had a quick look before we were going off to our next destination since it was still early in the day. The next step was to head to Kerikeri where there was the stone store and Kemp house, which are historic buildings in the Bay of Islands built in the early 1800s just before the Waitangi treaty had been signed in 1840. On the way Claude turned off to show me Opua where the ferry takes the vehicles over to Russell. I had never been there before even though I had always been to Paihia. There wasn’t much there and I did get to see the ferry before it left and never knew there was a branch of the NZ customs at the wharf in town. The drive to Kerikeri took us through Paihia and I have been there a few times though a couple of things did look different especially outside the main wharves where Greatsights are. Something that had been going on last year that I had been in New Zealand was that Countdown was shutting down as the building owner wanted to knock it down and the area was still a vacant supermarket area. When we did end up in the main street of Kerikeri I wasn’t expecting it to be so vacant and not really much at all. Sure I had been in small towns, but it makes me want to head to Paihia instead. I was able to take a short wander through the main street in town and followed the information centre sign that ended up in front of the local library and I was wondering where the loos were. Claude wandered up behind me as he had the same idea for the same location. Once we had drinks we ended up back at the car and away again.

The next part of the drive took us down to where Kemp House and the Stone Store was located though we ended up across the river from where we were supposed to be. At least there was a way to cross to the other side as there was a foot bridge, but at the time I did not know that. When I hopped out of the car there was a sign pointing me to a replica Maori fishing village called Rewa’s Village. I wasn’t going to go in as I did not have the time and I was left to my devices for a little bit. I turned back to try to cross the river thinking I could try the rock path and found that I couldn’t get down easily without getting wet and then noticed the bridge. Once I found where I was to go I headed to the back of Kemp house. They are both of New Zealand’s oldest buildings as they were part of the Missionary Societies second Anglican mission to NZ around 1819. The stone store is supposedly meant to be the oldest surviving building in the world. I did go looking for the Kororipo Pa, but I didn’t want to go too far and I did find parts of the Pa, but if I had gone further down the track I think there would have been more information. The next place I wanted to visit was the church I had seen from the stone store. I found St James Anglican church was part of the missionary things in the area and the third building to be erected in the area. It includes a cemetery in the grounds and the Kemp family who are what I think Kemp house is called. I wandered down and had a quick look inside the Stone Store where there were ladies in period costume though I was curious about something I had seen earlier. I was looking for the old hydro power plant that I never found though I wasn’t sure what I was looking for as I ended up a bit far down a bush track that I wasn’t sure where I would end up. I turned around and got a text just as I arrived at the car. Claude was wondering where I had ended up.

We went for a drive to look at a house that was past Kerikeri airport or I should say Bay of islands airport that I had been told were looking at expanding so that they will be able to get international planes flying in instead of say Auckland and getting the bus up. Claude was looking for a farm that a family member was wanting to buy and we couldn’t find the farm after driving so far up a country road, but it was a really nice and green area. With that we headed back towards Kerikeri and home where we could have dinner. The trip back was not via Paihia, but another direction as we would end up in Kawakawa coming back past the train station. One of the roads was like a launching ramp that I could have sworn other cars were going to launch themselves in the air. I think this actually concludes the Whangarei part of my trip as I will be heading to Auckland tomorrow.

Middle Earth Tour Day 23: Even more kiwis and museums

Middle Earth Tour Day 23: Even more kiwis and museums

Today was going to be an easier day as we were going to a local museum in Whangarei though they now call themselves Kiwi North with the kiwi house, museum and heritage stuff. We had bypassed this place several times since I had been to Whangarei though it was time to head there and see what it actually was like. I wasn’t sure if it would be anything like Dargaville museum at all or something different. The day looked to be a very warm one and I was looking forward to being out in the warmth. The museum was the only plan for the day that I did have so it could have been a short day out and about.

Once we got to the museum itself I wasn’t sure what to expect and there was the short drive that got us there pretty quickly. The grounds were actually really quiet and not many people were there. The day before the grounds had been packed with people when we went past. When we entered the reception area that included the kiwi enclosure the lady was giving several people a lecture about the kiwi itself before they all went into the dark to have a look. I was able to pay as a student though the lady thought I was from the UK when I said I was from UNE in New England. Still we were able to get in cheaper and we headed into the dark room to see the kiwi. There were two of them and we later found that they only let several together if they are a bonded pair as they are usually on their own. If they are not bonded then they will fight to the death plus the birds don’t breed until they are around 4 years old. I at least got to hear one make their call and so i could remember them if I hear one in the bush. They will be released into the wild once they have matured. Its to guarantee their survival from the predators like stoats and possums. There were lizards on the other side and they were being watered so that they can have a drink. The green native lizards have bright tongues and they recognised their keeper as they wanted to be fed. I did see people walking out though not sure if they understood there was more to see. The lady at the reception had told us that they had 17 christmas parties booked until Christmas and the crowd the day before were all from child care groups. I was thinking how lucky we were not to be there.

The next area we went to visit was the museum though they are still working on the building so sometime in the future you will be able to enter from the inside instead of going around to the back of the building. The museum was not really that big at all and really one big room. The top floor had a little display about the wearable art I had seen in Wellington though it is now in Auckland museum. The main part of the museum was about the local area including the WW1 aspect to the region, the findings of the remains of the Moa and what they were doing about the preservation. They talked about the areas the remains had been found and also about the supposed sightings over the years from people that was pointed out to be like that of seeing UFOs. The displays did talk about life in the early days of Whangarei including the Northern Wars with Hone Heke. I never knew the Germans had mined the Hauraki Gulf during WWII which is nearby. That was a surprise as you do not hear about things like that. There was plenty of information about the Maori including about the formation of the Maori Battalion during WW1 and their actions at Gallipoli that won them respect. I did find a little bit about the tattooing especially when one section had to be done at a time due to swelling.

Once we had finished the museum the last bit was to wander around the various buildings that was part of the heritage grounds. Some were actually closed to the public so you couldn’t enter them. Many of the buildings that are part of local heritage had been moved to the Kiwi North location though some of the buildings could also have been there also. At this stage in the day there were still not that many people wandering about. The Riponui Pah School building seemed to move around the area as it was once a class then a library and then moved to its current location to teach kids about what schools used to be like. The model railway seems to be a thing that goes all the way around the park, but only open at certain times. The other buildings there are the old womens jail, which is two cells, replica blacksmiths shop, Oruaiti chapel, New Zealands smallest Church, The Clark Homestead called Glorat built in 1886. Glorat was interesting as they are not restoring the building, but showing people what the original wall paper was like as many people lived there for years and the ceilings were very high too. The Jane Mander study tower as she was once a journalist for the local paper. The rest of the grounds seemed to be dedicated to the different clubs and only one was really open and that was a pair of guys repairing the old tractors. One older bloke was hard to understand, but once he got going with talking to us he soon spoke clearly especially about the temperamental tractors that you had to crank and about some happenings of the past in the local area. Once we both realised we were hungry it was time to leave though I wanted to see one more thing and that was supposedly an old headstone though knowing the area I am not sure if the grave was really a grave or a headstone had been moved there.

We headed back home for lunch and a rest though I would soon go out for a wander. My walk took me to the gold club and to one side of the gate was a track that I had a quick look at and found to be nothing, but a place for water to run off. Since the local shops were close I went looking at the prices and found milk to be a touch expensive and some other interesting products. I wandered back after my little look around the Tikipunga area though I could have spelt it wrong and went down a street thinking I had gone too far, but actually ended p in the right area. When I got back I found we had some visitors who were family members from down south who are dairy farmers. It was good to see them and we chatted for a little bit before going. Tomorrow is my last day in Whangarei before heading back to the city of Auckland where I will fly out later in the week.

Middle Earth Tour Day 22. Rainbow Warriors and Gum Diggers

Middle Earth Tour Day 22. Rainbow Warriors and Gum Diggers

Today I did sleep in though I did need the sleep as the night before  wasn’t feeling 100% at all. I was thinking the plan was to head towards Dargaville on the Kauri coast. I had been out that way before though that was to visit the other towns that Granny had lived in like Paparoa and Maungatapere. I was feeling completely recharged and ready to take off though I think I could have easily stayed in bed for another hour if I had been allowed, but I did want to go out to the museum. I do have a list of places I would like to visit though we do tend to get to them when we do travel. I don’t get to every location and I do always seem to find something to have a look at when I tend to do a search though there are times where I might have to get my own transport to end up at some out of the way location that I havnt thought about yet. The reason I wanted to visit the museum was that there were the sails to the Rainbow Warrior and after I found they were there I wanted to visit the museum over the last few years. Plus the museum book I had purchased several years ago recommended the visit too.

The day was really nice and while I wore a light jumper it was still a nice day out there and nothing that would bring me rain at all at least I hoped not as then that would suck even though we were in the car. Claude and I headed out to Dargaille via Maungatapere which wasn’t that bad a road though we had done part of the trip the day before. The road was not that busy as it was just after 9am and we did make good timing. One of the towns we passed through was really only the pub and other buildings was Tangiteroria bit of a mouthful though loads of fun typing into a GPS as it gets confused. We will talk about the confused GPS later on as it gets to be a bit fun. We made it into the town and the museum I could see perched on the hill though we still had to follow the signs to the museum. The Wairoa river looked very muddy and that was all I could see when I did look out at it. Even when we took the goat track up to the museum I could see the river was big and brown. I should point out that at least the goat track wasn’t as bad as the one that goes up to the Byron Bay lighthouse.

I was impressed by the size of the museum from the outside and could see the sails from the Rainbow Warrior just down the hill. I thought this might be the only things that were at the museum, but I was happy to wait until after we went through the museum. There were murals on the outside to life in the district as it was another gum digging area like north of Whangarei though its basically all over the place where there are swamps. We were the first to enter, but as soon as we paid for entry there was a rush on with people from some vintage car club. We sat down to watch a video about the swamp Kauri trees being retrieved from the swamp and each slab taken were around $8,000 each and they go overseas too. The man who does it is apparently the strongest wood cutter type person in New Zealand and while we were watching the video someone from the car club actually knew the bloke and was giving us all a running commentary about the video. Thats how I knew how much each slab from a 30 ton tree that was dug up cost. He does go to each farm asking if he could get the kauri out and pays the farmer a certain amount per metre or foot. There is supposedly meant to be another 10 years worth of Kauri left before it is all taken as its only really a job done in summer. The speaker had said he once spoke to someone from a survey ship that had pulled in and he was a working with a fuel truck at the time and they told him once he asked about looking at the maps that how all the Kauri ended up in swamps was that there was a huge tsunami in the past. One of the old fella’s we ended up talking to said his family had been in the Dargaville district for over 100 years and his family name was Montgomery, how I remembered that is I took a picture of the picture he had showed the both of us. Good using pictures to jog the memory of an event.

Once we got off again and into the museum we were looking at the various displays and I was wondering if this was all the museum had even though the buildings on the outside were bigger. I wondered what Claude was looking at though there was a lady asleep on a chair and he remarked that she looked real and the lady replied that she was though she was resting on a chair just under the World War One displays of the people who had gone. I had only gotten as far as the telephone exchange before we all were asked if we wanted to see one of the machines working. This was a Blackstone Gum washing machine. It had been restored in 1998. The history of the machine was that it had been used from around 1928 and was last seen in a working condition in 1943. It had been around 1973 where it was removed and placed into a storage shed for around 20 years though many parts were rotten or broken. According to the information the restoration took around a year and the person sometimes worked on it for close to 7 days a week. The person who was going to run the machine explained a bit about it though I did make a video of it too. The year of production on the machine was around 1914. All around the display were Skelton spades that have the name of a Dalmatian family and to show what were used in the gumfields when people were digging in the swamps. The Dalmatian people are also known as Yugoslav people. We are shown the licenses and the different grades of the gum that is used and shipped overseas. Someone had actually used the gum to carve out the different war memorials in the area that included one I had visited before and that was the WW1 memorial in Hukerenui that used cannon balls from a local siege site of Ruapekapeka.

The next few displays ended up being about the culture of the Dalmatian people as they have plenty of different things. Though I do wonder about the Boomerang collection since there are heaps of those on the wall. I did find a display of thimbles and porcelain beings that were all playing the accordion, which I thought was interesting. There really were different accordions from the Dalmatians area where the people had come from and some had some really nice patterns. The building the musical things were held was in an area that I had thought was an old church, but was actually the old library from the town of Aratapu. The library had been built in 1893 and moved to the museum in 2007. The only thing that remains of a booming town of 2000 people is now the hotel and the old hall. The town was once a thriving area for the industries of timber, gum and flax during the 1800s. It is interesting when you see information about thriving towns that become ghost towns once businesses close like the post office. It does seem like some of the places I have recently passed through that are on a map, but there is nothing at all.

The biggest display that I ended up in was to do with the maritime things in the local area including the many shipwrecks that seem to be in the area. There was also a very special one that I had not realised was actually there. There were many objects that had been taken from shipwrecks  and that included a swivel gun and small cannon taken from the ’L’Alcmene’ in 1977 by several divers including one Kelly Tarton of the underwater world in Auckland fame. The ship had been wrecked in 1851 off the Dargaville coast and was actually a French naval ship known as a corvette. One of the displays I was interested in happened to be all about the Rainbow Warrior, the Greenpeace ship that had been sunk at the Auckland harbour docks by some French frogmen. They showed the story of the vessel as it had been sunk, when it was on the dry dock and then when it had been sunk again as a diving wreck. It was all to do with the nuclear testing in the pacific that the boat had been sunk. Some of the other displays include model ships, but with a difference as the information includes where they happen to be located. One was the Cutty Sark where she is in London or should I say Greenwich, the remains of the Wasa near Stockholm, The U.S.S. Constitution aka ‘Old Ironsides’ is located at the old Charleston naval yards in Boston. There is the story of wrecks in the area including on the Kaipara harbour including having the first shipwreck that was recorded in 1840 that was carrying Kauri spars. Everyone in those days seemed to have a hand in something. There were displays of the various lighthouses including one part of one being the lighting mechanism from the Pouto lighthouse.

Off to a side door both Claude and I did go to finish the displays off that we had not seen as we were called away. They were about the locals in the area including as usual someone bearing the name of Dargaville. He is buried in Auckland in one of the cemeteries there. I did find the museum to be interesting including little stories like about one of the police officers seeing a man about stolen turkeys and finding himself had been consuming them when he had been given a soup. One of the last displays we looked at were of several Maori canoes one was a war canoe that had been buried, but uncovered and another one seemed to end up in different parts of the river from the early 1800s to be used by some in the community until it was given to the museum. A really colourful story like it knew it would end up in a museum, but had its own journey. Once we had left the museum I went for a walk to have a look at the masts or sails from the Rainbow Warrior. If you did not know the boat then you wouldn’t really know of the significance of the masts. Once we had a quick look at the vintage cars that were still at the museum we were off down the hill. We did stop to visit a family member in the RSA cemetery before heading to town for lunch.

Once we had made it to the town of Dargaville, I was directing Claude into how much room we had to park the car as we were in front of an entrance for a business that had a driveway. An elderly man had walked out thanking us both for parking in the correct parking place and he asked how long we were in the area for as the Kauri museum was having an open day tomorrow and he was going to be there with his vintage car. He did mention that people usually didn’t care that they had parked in front of his place even though here were markers pointing out the parking places. We both had to go inside as he wasnted to show off the picture of his car to us both. He actually had three cars and he was from England too. After 10 mins we explained we were in town for some food and he told us to go to the bakery as they were the best in town and that they maybe Chinese, but they were just as kiwi as he was. He was a pretty interesting character and all that was from parking the car. Once we had eaten lunch we had a short walk into town to have a look. There was a statue to the Gum diggers in town and there was a wooden carving of it in the museum. Claude went back to the car and I went for a short walk where I found the old post office and also the theatre. I didn’t take too long even though Claude was reading a book I didn’t want to keep him waiting for too long as it was already just after 3pm.

When we got onto the road we were heading south of Dargaville where we were going to take some country roads. I was looking at the map and we were close to an area that was called Bradleys Landing. No idea why it was called that, but I wanted to stop there and all there was is just a road and one part could have been an old wharf though it was unsealed. The area was also known as the kumara capital though not sure if you would be proud of that one. Claude wanted to take the back roads out to Tangiteroria and off back to Whangarei. I liked the idea as the map said there were small towns supposedly and half way along a metal road he had sorted out the GPS that was confused and tried to send us back to Dargaville. We were trying to find Arapohue, but the GPS really didn’t like us though luckily we had a paper map that we were also following.  The GPS went quiet for a while and I marvelled at the map as some places were called Windy Hill though that could be the road. We seen plenty of farms as Claude explained they are the life blood of the country as they produced stuff for market and I did see cows making their way home too. The GPS did eventually make up with us when we were close to Tangiteroria as it was starting to tell us directions. We really did appear where we were meant to and we headed back to Whangarei. It was funny as we had to stop at Maungatapere as traffic was backed up, but it wasn’t in the direction we were going. Seemed there was an accident on the main road so everyone were being sent the long way round.

It ended up being a really good day out and I was happy to see country that we had not seen before though I am still not convinced if you really want to call yourself the kumara capital of New Zealand. That could be a little embarrassing. I am happy to have finally visited the museum that I had wanted to do so for a long time and now have gotten to see relics from the Rainbow Warrior. Tomorrow maybe another day as we could be looking at other stuff in the area like the kiwi north museum. I do know that I would like to visit the train at Kawakawa as they seemed to have opened up the bridge so they can now go the full way and not to the bridge that had been damaged.

Middle Earth Tour Day 21: One bridge too far an aimless wander

Middle Earth Tour Day 21: One bridge too far an aimless wander

Today I was allowing myself to sleep in for a little bit and I ws wondering about the weather as the clouds had moved in to make like it was going to rain my day. I was planning on going on a short walk around the walking tracks at the base of Parihaka and then head off to the museum where there are kiwis and a moa too. I do know by now that plans don’t always go according to how you want them to go.

I was dropped off at one end of the Parihaka trail and I was going to walk along the base though last time I had been there I ended up walking up the mountain twice as I wanted to reach the summit. This time I was going around the tracks on the base. There were a few people uing the track and jogging along though I had my ipod on me and people still ended up scaring the crap out of me when they ran past. I wanted to see what it was like at one of the exits and that one was Mair Park. For that I had to cross the bridge and I was chased by ducks that were wanting to be fed as a lady had been feeding them before. I just stood there watching them and I do think they got the message that I had no food, but amongst them was a goose too. After a quick look around I had found the exit, but I wasn’t after that exit at all and headed back across the bridge to have an easy walk back towards the town centre. I was wanting o do the Town Basin walk along with the very new track that had opened up several months ago. It was called the Hatea loop Walkway. The track I was on finished pretty quickly and I was on the main street where I was going to begin the Hatea walk.

I knew some of the walking trail I had done the year before though I was walking on the opposite side of the Town Basin which is sort of like the entertainment hub of the area. It has the Chapman clock museum and several other places like Reyburn House. The walk take you past the skateboard and BMX track. The trail takes you over the new bridge that lifts up for yachts though the bridge actually has a name. Te Matau a Pohe or The fish hook of Pohe. Pohe is actually an island that was sacred to the local Maori as the only people who were allowed access to it were local Chiefs. Legend has it a slave girl was sacrificed there by being buried in soft mud and the tide comes in. Lovely what you find out on information boards that are around the area. I crossed the bridge and before me in its glory was the sports stadium and I crossed the road to visit. Somehow I walked through a random open gate to walk around the cricket grounds though I couldn’t exit from the pain entrance as it was padlocked. How do I explain I walked in through an open gate next to a treatment facility? Still it was a good look and I did see the workers doing their thing. No one even bothered to ask me what I was doing other than when I returned on my original path a truck driver waved to me.

Once I was back on the right path I headed to the next part an that was another bridge that opens up, but this time it was a full on foot bridge. I didn’t think there was enough water below for any boat to cross. The bridge has its own name too and was opened in 2014 and called Kotuitui Whitinga. The meaning is to interweave and connect with the land. The next object was some sort of boat and some more rock. Though this I found out was called a Waka and wave. It was all stone and had been there since 2006. I had never gotten that far before so had missed this design though once I came opposite the theatre I was able to see the information signs about the history to the local area. They were double sided as one side tells you the Maori history and the other side the European part with while settlement. I would love a book about the history of Whangarei. I followed the trail and ended up at the Town Basin area where I stopped for an ice cream from the fudge shop. I was thinking a coffee and an ice cream, but that would be simply too weird at the same time,

After the shops I wandered into the town centre looking for lunch. I remembered a pie shop from last time called Jesters. I went for a walk looking for a book shop that I had seen, but never walked into. The shop was a second hand bookstore called The Piggery. The shop had books all over the place and I couldn’t choose anything as I had no idea what I would have wanted. At least I found some interesting books, but I have no room for any of them. I decided that it was best time to get a head on to the museum and kiwi house. The problem was I had half hour to wait for the bus and I realised the museum shut at 4pm. This meant I would not have enough time to wander though everything as the next bus was at 2pm. At least the map showing the routes was really easy and simply explained. I did send a message o be picked up and then headed to where I was going to be picked up. When Claude did come we made the decision to pick up Don from the nursing home and go for a drive.

We went into the home and I got to see Don for the first time in a year. He was happy to see us and think he was wanting to go for a ride in the car too though there was another guy next to him that really wanted to come along too. He was the escape artist I had seen last time I was there who had been trying to get through a locked door. I chatted with one of the nurses about how nice a day it was and what I had done though I was hoping that I wouldn’t be left in the ward once I went to the loo. Luckily people do know we are not there. Once on the road we were heading to a far off pub at Poroti for a drive. It doesn’t mean we had no idea where we were at all, but we went in the direction that it was thought to be. Claude had an idea of where we were once we had reached mangatapere where the Packard car museum is. After we stopped at the pub and had a beer though it was a drafty pub and my second visit. After the beer we took Don back to the home and I was actually falling asleep in the back of the car. Once we got back to the house I thought I would lay down for a bit and an hour and half later I got up as I wasn’t expecting to sleep for that long. It was unusual for me to do something like that at all.