Day 1 on the North Island
We had originally planned to spend at least a day in
Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. It's an attractive, vibrant city
with an outstanding museum, Te Papa,
the Museum of New Zealand. However, our campervan was waiting for us 20 minutes
north of Wellington. So we decided to visit Wellington the next time we come
to New Zealand.
We signed the papers at the pick-up facility, left the
deposit, and had a tour of the van by the manager's young daughter who interrupted
her smoke session with a friend long enough to show us how things worked.
The tape around the skylight was downplayed as not worthy of concern. Off
we went in the late afternoon, north on highway 1 along the coast and then
inland toward the area of Palmerston North.
A few miles past Palmerston North, we had a fine dinner at
The Barrel in the village of Dannevirke
settled by Vikings, they say. About ten miles down the road we pulled into
a rest area to spend a windy, stormy night. In the middle of the night, Judy
was awakened by water dripping steadily on her face and pillow as well as
on the floor. The tape apparently was only a band-aid repair for a real problem.
