Sunday - cars and flax

After the heavy rain of last night we were relieved to wake this morning to sunny skies, even though the wind was still very strong. We had a delightful breakfast with Steve and Rob, and had a chance to see the outside of their lovely house, and the magnificent view of the sea from their garden.

We finally said goodbye, and set off for the next stage of our journey.

First stop was only a few kilometres north where we visited the car collection at the Southward museum. An incredible collection of cars, though not a single TR there. Apart from the cars there was also motorbikes, toy cars, sewing machine and an extensive collection of cruet sets! The cars were the stars though, occupying two floors of the enormous building. They ranged from the oldest car in NZ through to an Ariel Atom, passing through Marlene Dietrich's Rolls-Royce and a mobster's bullet proof car on the way. One intriguing item was a right hand drive Mercedes-Benz, possibly ordered by Hitler as a present for The Duke of Windsor, to be given after Hitler's successful invasion of England.

Next we drove further north to Foxton and the Flax Striping museum. A tiny place where we paid $5 each for a talk and demonstration of how to prepare NZ flax (actually a member of the lily family) ready for rope and carpet making. Surprisingly interesting, and a very personalised talk.

After a quick lunch we set off in a north-westerly direction towards the west coast and Hastings. Along the way we saw our first wind farm, though the turbines were of an older design. Given the amount of wind they have in the area we were surprised they were not utilising it more.

The drive was pleasant, through more typical NZ scenery of rolling hills, brown grass and sheep, though on a smaller scale than on the South Island. The only spectacular bit of scenery was the Manawatu Gorge, a 10 km gap in the hills through which the river, the road and the railway all squeeze.

 After a long drive in the sunshine we finally arrived at our destination, the Diary Country House to the west of Hastings near the tiny settlement of Maraekakaho.  Our hosts are Nettie and Eddie, a delightful couple who greeted us with wine, a plate of ham, cheese and olives and who then enquired if we were going to dine in tonight.  Result, more bulging waistlines after a lovely meal, shared with our hosts and two other guests from Paisley.  Tomorrow we may visit a vineyard or go walking, after which we have a visit to the gannet colony booked.