The plan was to go to a place called Paraparaumu today, which is the principal town of the Kapiti Coast, and spend some time on the beach but the weather was so miserable by the time we got there and after driving around for two hours trying to find a campsite we decided to cut our loses and have a look on the map for another campsite. We found one in a place called Kaitoke Regional Park which seemed about 40 kilometres away and after consulting our guidebook we discovered that it was where the Rivendell scenes from Lord of the Rings were shot (this won't mean a thing to a lot of you). Anyway, we headed off and perhaps three hours later, after driving through some of the most mountainous and winding roads I've ever been on, we got there. And just to reward us for our strenuous efforts, the weather cleared up just as we got there! The campsite was pretty reasonable aswell and had a power socket (so I could charge up the laptop) and an outdoor kitchen with barbecues. We had a quick drive around to find the part of the park where the Rivendell scenes were shot...
If's it's not recognisable it's because they built a big scaffold towards the right of the river where the set was - you might be able to see it on the photo of the notice board below...
... and then we found our campsite for the night and cooked dinner on the barbie provided. This evenings meal consisted of a starter of around 4 beers, followed by steak seasoned with salt and pepper, sliced barbecued potato slices, carrot sticks cooked in oil and balsamic, and barbecued corn on the cob cooked in butter. Dessert was the starriest sky we've ever seen and a glass of wine or two while watching the Lord of the Rings (part 1) on the laptop. Scene of the crime so to speak.
The next day was a scorcher aswell so I decided to have a dip in the morning.
The water was unbelievably cold but there were people watching so I forced a smile for the camera.
Off to Wellington now for a few days before heading to the South Island on the ferry. More to follow from the South Island and please keep leaving the comments - it's great to hear from all of you!
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