Castle's Been Cancelled!

I started watchingCastle at season 3, and have been following it for the last five years. Its a great show with a great cast. Its a bit of a shock that it is ending, season 8 has been very good! From what I can find online it looks like the last episode of season eight will be the finale, so tomorrows episode had better be good!! And it better end things nicely or I will be one unhappy fan...

Shoutout to Destin

Have you heard of Smarter Every Day? If not, you should check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/smartereveryday

http://www.smartereveryday.com/

I found Destin around 12 months ago now, the first video I watched was The Backwards Bicycle, that sparked my interest and I have been following him ever since. Some things he said in the backwards bicycle video, and in many others, had me suspecting that he was a Christian, I later discovered that he puts a Bible Reference at the very end of most of his videos (I often didn't see them because I stopped watching when he started his advertising bit). His being a Christian was later confirmed in a Q&A video he did. 

I have developed a deep respect for him because of his character and the way he does his videos, watch a few and I think you will understand what I mean. 

The reason for this shoutout is because of his most recent video, Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted some false information on twitter, and Destin corrects him in this video, now I have no respect for Tyson, he talks alot of dribble about evolution and the universe being billions of years old bla bla bla, so if it were me I would have made a big deal out of correcting him, probably making fun of him along the way, but Destin didn't do that, he went to Neil and involved him in the making of a video that explains why he was wrong, and demonstrates the correct information.  A very respectful and Christian way of doing things. 

Watch it below:

My Wife Joins Golden Key

www.goldenkey.org

Golden Key is an Honours Society awarded to students whose results are in the top 15% worldwide, and my beautiful wife has been invited to join! This means that her results from her first year at Uni are inside the top 15% worldwide! An extremely impressive accomplishment and I am so proud of her. 

On Monday night we went down to the UTAS campus in Launceston for the Golden Key New Member Reception, where they award all new members a certificate of recognition and talk about the benefits of being a member.

Amy receiving her certificate.

Of course I had to get a frame and put it on the wall with all of her other certificates (there's still more to go on the wall!) 

I am so proud of you darling! I am regularly amazed at your commitment to do your very best in everything you set out to do, no matter what it may be. I love you and I know that I will be putting another certificate on the wall soon ;) 

Scum of the Earth

I run a club on Facebook, the 2.8 Patrol Club, obviously for 2.8 Patrols. Four months ago a mate I met on there, lives in Victoria, had his car stolen. 

Its a nice rig, heaps and heaps of work done, big lift (I think 6"), engine was recently fully reconditioned, redarc gauges, power chip, rooftop tent, light bars, the list goes on, he has owned it for years, and like me loves his car and has spent many hours and dollars on it. He was at the beach when it was stolen, and wasn't there long so he only just missed the thieves, minutes after it was stolen he jumped online to the Club and spread the word, people all across Victoria had there eyes open for it, but it was never seen again. 

Until now....

I hope the people who do this are found and made to pay for what they do..

Its Been a While...

A lot has happened since my last post, here is a quick update on a few things that have happened (its been very busy!) 

Christmas

A brief word on Christmas last year, in short, a lot of lasts involved, and by that I mean things happening for the last time, it was my last christmas as an unmarried man, the last christmas at home with mum and dad, and also the last christmas dinner at my grandparents current house, where it has been for as long as i have memories of christmas. It was a good day, and also a bit emotional, but I was very keen for the future. Nothing can get you more excited than being able to marry your best friend! 

Bucks Night

Grant was able to secure In the Zone for my Bucks night at a cost to everyone (except me) of about 1 game each, we spent something like 5 hours there... It was AWESOME! Thanks Grant, you pulled of a far better bucks night than I could have hoped for. Unfortunately Ben wasnt well and didnt make it.

Wedding

Anyone who has planned, or helped to plan a wedding will know that it takes a hell of a lot of effort and time, and Amy being at Uni and me full time working didn't make it any easier, however come January 10th 2016 everything came together in absolute perfection and went off like clockwork, literally nothing could have gone better. Amy and I couldn’t be happier, and we will thank God for that for the rest of our lives.

Isn’t she absolutely stunning?

Yes, I cried.

I would like to say a HUGE thank you to all those who helped us to pull it off, we couldn't have done it without you. 

Honeymoon

I wont say much about this other than it was absolutely amazing, and, that a cruise is the perfect honeymoon, everything, and I mean everything, is taken care off for you. The ship, the places we visited, the food, simply mind blowing. All of it. It was an amazing experience and a perfect honeymoon.

Our first look at the ship, Carnival Spirit

This was at the first stop, Mystery Island, absolutely stunning place, we couldn’t believe it! Turns out those tropical island photos in magazines aren’t photo-shopped! 

Leaving the ship was a process called Tendering, several of the lifeboats were used to ferry people to and from shore.

On the balcony of our cabin, on the starboard side towards the stern.

This shot was taken from the viewing deck directly on top of the bridge. Pretty cool.

Free TV

A little bit of a backstory before I talk about this one, Amy and her family, particularly her father and sister, are big followers of Survivor, they have watched it together since long before I came on the scene. Due to our limited funds we didn't have a TV and so I had just setup one of my computer monitors in the living room to watch episodes and movies on. Well, about a week before Survivor was scheduled to start we get a phone call from her dad informing us that as an early birthday present to Amy they would put $400 towards a TV for us. Wow. 
 
Obviously I wanted to put extra money in and get something nice, but we decided to be wise and find something for the $400, which we did, a 43" Full HD TV. Freebies are awesome :) Thanks Brett & Jenny!!

Smashed Apple Watch

Yea um.. whoops.. I’m glad I bought Apple Care+, a new one is on its way!

Dozer Engine

Dad and I have had a rush of work come in in the last 8 weeks, we have been absolutely flat out, with people chasing us to be there, which is great, a welcome change from the last couple of years! Last year we bought a dozer so we could take on these jobs, we had to do some work on it at home, but as it turns out, unfortunately we didn’t do enough, towards the end of the job we are currently on it suffered an engine failure, so we are now working flat out to try and get it going again (we are building a new engine for it) and to finish of the job we are on. 

The old girl is looking pretty sad at the moment. 

Anyway that’s it for now, over and out. 

An Interesting Experience...

I was heading from church over to spend some time with Amy at her place in Ulverstone, as I was coming up to the Leith intersection I was witness to a very nasty car accident.

The red line is the offending vehicle, the green is the Hilux pictured above:

A sedan pulled out of Leith, attempting to cross the highway and head west, but he pulled out in front of a late model Hilux towing a trailer and fully loaded with late model dirt bikes (I estimate close to 20k of bikes/gear onboard, perhaps more). The hilux had no where to go and hit the rear right corner of the sedan sending it spinning out of the way and the hilux barrelling down the highway sideways, and ending up on its roof in less than 50 meters.

I, along with several other motorists immediately pulled over and rushed over to help, we pulled the three occupants of the hilux from the wreck, all still conscious and ok, there did not appear to be any serious or life threatening injuries.

The number of people who stopped to help, along with the teamwork of those who did makes one believe in humanity again! If only we could get along like that all the time..

FINALLY!

Most of you will know that myself and my brother in law, Grant, have been working to subdivide a block of land at Squeaking Point. The process has been less than friendly, the council worse than completely useless, and the cost, ridiculous! But I finally have some good news! On Friday 23rd October 2015 @ 12:01pm our titles were finally issued!

It has been a long hard and expensive road, but we are finally on the home stretch, as of the writing of this post we are just waiting for our bank manager to organize the refinance, at which time we will have separate mortgages, on separate lots, and each own our own piece of Planet Earth.

Unfortunately due to all the delays and extra cost I wont be able to build there for some time, Grant however has been gnawing away at the approvals and planning etc and is now ready to start, we are moving our 30 ton Excavator in this week to begin clearing!

Praise God!

In other house related news, today Myself and Amy have submitted an application to rent a unit in Port Sorell, God willing we will hear about that this week, and hopefully be successful!

50 Years Married

On the weekend my grandparents on dads side celebrated 50 years of marriage, the whole family organized a surprise get together in Launceston for a cruise down the Tamar followed by some photos (Grandma loves family photos) and tea at a Chinese restaurant, The Golden Brumby (formerly known as Susie's Hoong Fatt - I laughed too). All in all it was a good day, and a blessing to celebrate 50 years along with them.

I would just like to say Congratulations to them, and may there be many more years to come!

My Birthday Present!

Those of you that read this blog probably know me pretty well, and as such would know that I’m a big fan of smartwatches, I mean whats the point of lugging around a thing on your wrist that can only tell you the time? I stopped wearing watches years ago for that reason. So as you can imagine Ive been drooling over an Apple Watch even since they were announced, I had intended to preorder one, but when preorder day came along I was broke..

And so I had to sit back and watch as the world lapped up Apples stock.

Several months later, my birthday came along, and my fiancee presented me with a 42mm Apple Watch, suddenly I remembered what birthdays were like as a 5 year old.

I've had this now for a couple of weeks and it is every bit as awesome as I imagined! The ability to get notifications and respond to them on your wrist without the need to get your phone out is unbelievably handy, so is having all of your loyalty cards on your wrist! Not to mention all the cool extra stuff like, taking phone calls on your wrist, remote control for the iPhone camera, getting a brief look at the weather forecast and all the awesome, customizable watch faces.

One of the features fairly high on my favorites list isn’t the activity tracking that this thing can do, but the best thing about that is it keeps track of how long you spend sitting and after 50 minutes of sitting it taps you on the wrist and says you need to stand up and walk around. I spend far to much time sitting, either for work or in front of a computer and so this is a very handy feature. All this is set to get better too with the next OS update for this thing!

So to sum up this is an AWESOME watch, and I have THE BEST Fiancee ever!!

Our Engagement Party

Last week me and Amy hosted our engagement party, it was a big success. To be honest we weren't sure how it would go down, being a Disney themed dress up, but we had fun putting it all together, and organizing our own costumes etc. 

But it was a huge success, we had some epic costumes and the amount of comments about how good a night it was was amazing, so a big thanks to all those who came, and even bigger thanks to those who dressed up! 

A group shot of my groomsmen all dressed up :) 

Some shots of the themes Amy put together around the room

I'm Home

Well, I have officially moved back home! And boy is it nice to be back!! Its been a pretty hectic two weeks, but I am glad to be back home with my fiancee, and I am enjoying the work too.

I flew in on the 17th of May, one of the better flying days I had going back and forth to NZ over the last 8 months, though dragging over 60kg of luggage through customs and the airport isn’t much fun, but I made it, and so did my stuff! The week following my return was spent helping dad finish off a job before he leaves on Saturday, going around all the jobs he wants me to do while he is away, and spending as much time as possible with my amazing fiancee!

Everything was going great, until the Enterprise beamed my wallet into orbit, and I haven't seen it since. I'll tell you now losing your wallet is a real pain! Not only did i lose all my cards (none were hacked thankfully), and my driving license (all this happened the night before my truck license test too) but I also lost several items of memorabilia from NZ that I wanted to keep, anyway its a week on now and I have all my cards back except my license.

Its also been a week now since dad left, and I must say that I am enjoying being my own boss, I’m also enjoying the work, a lot more so than I expected! Which is great.

I've Been Evicted!

The rent, along with my working contract ended April 30th, however Dean asked me to stay on for a bit longer, but unfortunately there is a new tenant moving in on the 4th of May so we couldn’t extend the rental agreement.

So, Ive had to evacuate the premises...

And move to a motel room...

Check out my fridge!

Less than ideal, but its only for two weeks, and the free, daily cleaning is a bonus!

Gisborne Getaway

Saturday was ANZAC Day, and here in New Zealand, as of this year, it has been 'Mondayised' (their word, not mine) so I got Saturday and Monday off work, so I took the opportunity (quite likely the last oppurtunity) to take another trip around New Zealand, this time heading east to Gisborne. 

This was a last minute decision, I was expecting to work saturday, I had forgotten it was a public holiday, so after a quick pack on saturday morning I headed out. The first town I would go through is Matamata, best know for Hobbiton, which isnt far outside the city itself, this is the I-Site.

Pretty cool I thought, I stopped in for a look and a shot glass before continuing on my way. 

There are some great road signs around New Zealand, and I have been meaning to photograph some of them, so on this trip I made it a point to stop and photograph some of them, so throughout this post you'll see a few of them, like this one

Next town I came to was Te Puke, the kiwifruit capital of the world!

Also home to the largest kiwifruit in the world!

Shortly after leaving the worlds largest kiwifruit, google got a little confused...

I gather it was a new intersection, but looked like it had been there for quite some time. 

^^ another good road sign

This was a road sign I saw that I had to return and photograph

Mum & Dads place backs onto a Browns Rd, also a No Exit! 

The road south from Opitiki down to Gisborne was great! Another scenic, windy and fun stretch of road, after all the trips I have done, I am not surprised that a lot of successful race car drivers have come from New Zealand. 

^^ This was the first thing I saw coming into Gisborne, oddly, not the only Ship-on-a-stick I saw.. 

^^ The view out over the bay from the Top 10 Holiday Park where I stayed.

Some shots from around Gisborne

Before going to bed I did some research in google maps about my trip plans for Sunday, this was supposed to be directions from my current location.. 

Go home google, you’re drunk.

SUNDAY

After leaving Gisborne, I headed south, toward Napier and Hastings, I came across a picnic area with a great view back toward Gisborne and the bay

The road from here to Napier was yet another great New Zealand road, half way there I came across another picnic stop, this time on the edge of a lake, it was quite beautiful

Next stop, Napier, Hastings and Hawkes Bay, this is a really beautiful place, Hawkes Bay is very nice

Napier

Hastings

Hawke's Bay

Time to head back to my place! Pretty much no stops, I went directly there, tho I did grab a couple of photos while driving thru a small town with heaps of cool things made from roofing iron

Some more road signs

^^ These are road signs I think we need to bring to Australia! 

Well, I can now say that I have pretty much seen all of the North Island! Which is pretty cool, and oddly enough, not something I can say about Tassie... 

I have now also driven the full length of State Highway 1, which runs from the top to the bottom of New Zealand’s North Island, which I think is pretty cool. 

North to Northland

So we had a fair dump of rain Monday & Tuesday, Dean said work for the rest of the week is unlikely and has given me permission to head off again. This time I am heading North to Northland!
 
I sat down Tuesday night and worked out an itinerary for myself, picking out where I will camp, where I will be able to get food/fuel etc. I have planned it so that I can attend the opening of the International Rally of Whangarei this Friday night, and perhaps meet Ken Block, who will be there, but we shall see. The plan was to then go and watch a couple of the rally stages on Saturday morning, and then head home. This itinerary only required I travel between 250 and 300 km per day, which allowed plenty of time for excursions off the main route and plenty of sight seeing!
 
Meet my mascot for the trip.

Day One - The Adventure Begins! 
I say adventure because I am heading out with a $20 Kmart tent, a vehicle that has, until now, been extremely unreliable (tho we think its visit to the mechanic on Tuesday has finally fixed it, fingers crossed) and the weather forecast not very favorable! But, I don't have much time left to go and see New Zealand, and there are only a few places left to go and I will have seen the majority of the North Island, which is pretty cool! And so with this opportunity throwing itself in front of me, I wasn't about to pass it up! ONWARD! 
 
It started as any camping trip does, first off you must pack the car! Seeing as I was going for several days this time I was a little more thorough with my packing, taking along as much food as possible etc etc (btw Rob, all the items you left here have proven very useful! cheers!) Once this was done, I headed out! My first stop was to be the Sky Tower in Auckland City, as I have begun collecting shot glasses from the places I visit, and I hadn't yet got any from Auckland (and how could I go home without one from there?) So I took the opportunity to stop in on the way past. Looking back now, with the shot glasses I was able to obtain, I am glad I stopped, but at the time it proved to be a nightmare! You would not believe the traffic in the city at 10am! Don't people have jobs?! It took nearly half an hour to find a car park, and I had to pay thru the nose for it ($13/hour). I didn't take that long, but it was charged in half hour blocks. 
 
Anyway, with that now out of the road, I plugged my destination into the gps, and continued on! With only around 200km to my intended destination, and by this time it was only 11am, I was able to take my time, enjoy the sites and make forays from the main route, plenty of which proved to be worthwhile! 

a random something on a random hill...
 
Among my forays off the main route was this stop at a museum in the middle of no where, I stopped not to go thru the museum, but because museums often have gift shops... with shot glasses.. lol i scored a nice one there. But what I did see of interest there was this

Its an old steam powered log winch! According to the spec on the side it is a twin cylinder steam engine producing 13.5hp, not as much as I had expected. 

Also check out the epic shot of the bird in the top left, a total fluke!
 
I stopped at the last town I would pass thru, Dargaville, for a late lunch, and to find a shot glass, before continue on to the Kai Iwi Campgrounds, two campgrounds on the edge of a beautiful lake, 35km (tho it feels much further than that) from civilization. 

^ Dargaville
 
On the way out to the camp grounds I spotted yet another grouping of pink hay bales...

I have seen this several times now in rural New Zealand, some of them have signs expressing their support for the fight against breast cancer, tho personally I'm not sure what a hay bale can do in the fight, but anyway.. 
 
Upon arriving at the campgrounds I explored both areas before deciding where to set up camp, my decision primarily based on where I could get cell coverage.

The tarp is just in case it rains, it proved useful even before I entered the tent, a fairly violent and heavy, but short, shower went thru. After setting up camp, I wandered around the edge of the lake for a look, found a cache, and then enjoyed sandwiches and yogurt for tea (that was all i had at home to bring, everything else required cooking) I then ventured into the tent for the night. 
 
Day 2
Well.. the tarp backfired on me! While it protected the tent from a late evening shower, it was quite breezy all night and the stupid tarp was flapping around and making so much noise it kept waking me up! I ended up getting out of bed and taking it down, risking the rain, I slept well after that! 
 
8am and I was up, eating breakfast and packing up, I was on the road before 9am - no rush as i only have 280km to travel - the first thing of interest that I came across was a gravel road leading out to the west coast, it was only a few kilometers so I decided to go for a look, I was expecting a small beach area and that’s it, what I found was a small village of shacks, probably 12 - 15 of them on the hill at the edge of the beach

Continuing north on state highway 12, I came across a sign that read 'Waipoua Kauri Forest Next 18km' I didn't take much notice, until a couple of km down the road it became a magnificent drive, tight winding roads boxed in by beautiful forest on either side! Suffice to say I thoroughly enjoyed it, even tho my vehicle was less than suitable for this type of road.

About half way thru I found a turn off that led to a Waipoua Kauri Forest Lookout, I went for a look

^ Me in the Waipoua Kauri Forest, in front of the trees this forest is known for.
 
The next stop was something I had not expected to find way out here in the middle of no where, an I-Site with Forest Tours, and camping facilities! (I even scored a shot glass here!)

Not long after leaving the Waipoua Kauri Forest I came out on the coast at a town called Omapere, quite a beautiful spot! 

Almost there!

This is at Kaitaia, the last major town on route to the top! Here I grabbed my lunch, topped up on fuel, had a quick look around and continued north! 
 
I had heard a bit about Ninety Mile Beach before from the fellas at work, but I had forgotten about it, until the morning I left the fellas called into my place to get some keys and when I told them where I was off too they said oh you'll have to check out Ninety Mile Beach, well Kaitaia is only 10km south of it! 

It is actually considered a road.

I would love to travel the full length of the beach, but not knowing the access at the other end, nor the tides, I decided to play it safe. I did however do some investigating and googling and found an access roughly 20km up the beach, which I scouted out from the road, tomorrow morning I will be able to come back and do that 20km run down the beach.
 
After finishing my scouting, I found not far down the road a turn off that went across to the east coast, this part of the peninsula is only 10-12km wide! 

Next stop, the top! 
 
I had arrived in plenty of time, so when I saw a sign leading down to Tapotupotu Bay, so I went down for a look, this was about 4km from the top.

What I didn't realize is that this is in fact the northernmost campsite, and where I would be staying the night. 

Well there it is folks, this country isn't as pretty as other places in New Zealand, but it is still worth a look at the top.

I went for a walk down to the lighthouse, found a couple of caches, took plenty of photos, then returned to the Tapotupotu Bay campground to set up camp. I will head back up there in the morning to get some photos with the sun in a much better position! 
 
Day 3
I ended up going to bed fairly early last night, which payed off, I was woken at 5:30 by a group of guys with boats, packing and preparing to go out for the day. I tried to sleep a little longer, but come 6:30 I was wide awake so I got up and packed up camp. My boss had said he would talk to me today about work, I think he was hoping to work tomorrow (Saturday), but last I checked the weather forecast wasn't good, in any case I decided I would be on the road fairly early today in case he wanted me home by tonight to work tomorrow. Before heading south I returned to the top to get some more photos, it was an overcast morning, so I was able to get some good ones that I was not able to get the night before, due to the sun. 

I was heading south just after 8am, having already traveled this road there wasn't much to see, until I got to the Ninety Mile Beach access road that I had scouted yesterday, I headed out onto the beach and continued south.

^ Even google thinks its a road!
 
Everything was going well, until about halfway (10km down the beach) I realized I didn’t have 4 wheel drive…. I hit a couple of soft sand areas, so I decided to play it safe and engage 4wd, but when I took off, there was a horrible grinding noise coming from the front left wheel (I had used 4x4 the day before with no issues) so I had to disengage 4x4 and continue in 2wd, I made it tho, thankfully, and it was all in all quite a fun trip. Interestingly its also a quicker route than following the road, provided you ignore the 30kmh speed limit. Its around 15km less distance to travel than taking State Highway 1. 
 
Reaching Kaitaia in good time, I grabbed some breakfast, and tried to call the boss, he didn’t answer so I continued on my way, just in case, towards Whangarei. I was really hoping not to have to work tomorrow because I wanted to check out the Whangarei Rally that started tonight. 
 
About 20km south of Kaitaia there is this

Its a 13km stretch of absolutely magnificent road, so good, that I turned around and did it 3 times! (down, back up, down again) I only wish I had a better car! My 3” lifted patrol on 33” muddies handles better than this thing! This thing just flops all over the road. But still, I had fun.
 
Next stop Whangarei, I made it there in better time than I was expecting! I found a Maccas for some lunch and a spot to sit down and get online with my Macbook. I then contacted Ben, a mate of mine here who will be driving in this weekends rally, to find out some more details on this evenings event, he invited me to call into his motel, so I did. 

^ Bens Rally Car

^ Me and Ben at the Rally Opener

I spent several hours there hanging out with Ben and his crew, this was also the first time I had seen his car finished, last time i saw it, it was a shell on 4 jack stands. At around 3pm I decided I had better go and set up camp, and go find a parking spot ready for tonight’s event, which would begin at 4:45pm. I was expecting it to be quite busy and difficult to get a park anywhere, I wasn't wrong. I was able to make it there in fairly good time tho and got to watch many of the cars drive in, including Ken Blocks Fiesta, what a car!!

I found out later that this is in fact the Gymkhana Car in his Gymkhana Videos!
 
If that doesn’t interest you, then you may as well stop reading here. 

Unfortunately I didn’t realize it at the time, but this car ^ is of particular interest, I wish I had taken a closer look while it was on display, but at the time it just looked like a Peugeot 206 rally car, a nice looking car, but really nothing special. But boy was I wrong, and the second I heard it launch from the start line for SS1, I realized it. more in this later. 
 
I watched SS1 and SS2, two runs on the same track, it was dark, but still good to watch. I then retired for the night. 
 
Day 4
I was up, packed up and heading out in time to make it up to the Prime spectator spot on SS4, I wasn't up early enough to make SS3. 

^ a real drone, $16000 worth! 
 
when I arrived I found this viewing spot to be fantastic! Right on the outside of a hairpin!

Here are a few videos of cars going thru on SS4

and the ‘boring’ Peugeot 206 I mentioned earlier

I learned from various spectators a fair bit about that car (I also googled it later) it is in fact not a pug 206 at all, not even based on a pug 206, the ONLY pug 206 feature is the shell, underneath is a completely custom designed 4wd rally car, powered by a Renault 3.5L v6 Formula Renault engine. Yes, you read that correctly. This car is capable of going from 0 - 200km/h in just 7 seconds! A very impressive car, built by a 21 year old in his families barn! The car is called the Kelsey MC2 (Mad Creation 2), and it is quite an impressive piece of machinery. 
 
After seeing the fast cars go thru, myself along with a few other spectators moved on to the prime viewing location for SS5

Another good spot to watch, here are a couple of videos

Unfortunately Kelsey made a mistake there, going right instead of left, which is a shame as I would have loved to hear him come screaming around that corner sideways! We could hear his car coming a good minute or so before it surfaced at the top of the hill!
 
By this time the rain had settled in, so having seen all the top guys go thru I decided I better continue on my way, I stopped in at Whangarei (the rally was about 40km north) for an early lunch, I then stopped in at the car park where all the rally car workshops were setup, it was time for the lunch time service, so all the cars where returning, I had a walk around and spent some time in Ben’s area before heading off back home.  
 
On the way home I stopped in at Retrospace to pick up a Spock T Shirt they had ordered in for me, I then went straight home for a shower and to relax! 

This has been a good week, though I am not a huge fan of traveling solo, it has been worthwhile, and I have now seen most of the north island!

Score!

So I went to Hamilton today to get my haircut, finally! It has been long, long overdue! Anyway, I went into the local Noel Leeming (Harvey Norman style store). Before I continue, I should explain that I have been eyeing off a Logitech invention for a while now, a series they call 'Protection +' which includes an awesome magnetic phone mounting system for your car, I had originally thought it was useless to me, until I recently discovered that the kit comes with magnetic pads to allow any device to work with it, and even more recently I discovered that they now have an iPhone 6 case with a magnetic strip built in to work with the car mount, a case that is actually really nice (I never liked the iPhone 5 options), the only reason I haven’t bought one is because they are $50 over here, cheaper to buy them in Oz, anyway back to Noel Leeming, while wandering around their store, I found a bin full of smartphone cases marked as Clearance, and inside I found these:

Why buy 5 you ask? Well, one is for Mum so I will only have 4, 4 $50 cases i scored for $20! At that price I figured why not have a few spares? or if I get bored I can change the color.

A Spur of the Moment Trip

So it rained Friday evening, and the boss rang and said we wont bother working tomorrow (Saturday) so I decided,  I have two days, I might go for a drive somewhere and see a bit more of the country, so I got the maps app out and picked a route, I decided I would head down the west coast to New Plymouth and Whanganui and then back up the middle via State Highway 4. 

I should explain at this point what has been going on with my supplied work vehicle. In short ever since I have been here it has been giving trouble, it has spent more time at the mechanics than in my possession. I wont bore you with details of its amazing unreliability, but you will understand when I say I was hesitant to go on a road trip with it. However, we had only got it back from the mechanics again on thursday, and they had found a problem and so we were a little more confident in its reliability, confidence that was falsely placed, as you will learn later on. 

After packing the car with all the supplies I thought I would need I headed south, following the GPS towards New Plymouth. The first thing of interest that I came across was this, it seems these New Zealanders have stolen a local Spreyton landmark

Having not made any stops yet, I cruised into a small town Called Piopio, not seeing anything terribly interesting I continued on my way, but, catching my eye on the way out, was a sign that read ‘Hobbit Film Location 14km’. Obviously I went to investigate! I found Hairy Feet, a scenic tour of the filming location for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey scenes involving the Trolls in Trollshaws Forest, and also the cave where Sting was found and given to Bilbo Baggins. 
 
http://www.hairyfeetwaitomo.co.nz

The filming was done at the base of those cliffs, I am hoping to return at some stage and do the tour. 
 
Also, something interesting i found on the road to Hairy Feet

The countryside here is quite remarkable and beautiful

The roads here are absolutely awesome too! 

My first look at the west coast this trip

Notice anything unusual? 

No you’re not dreaming, the sand along the west coast of New Zealand is in fact black! 

These people have an odd fascination with shoes (interestingly, not the only place I saw this on my travels) 

I made it to New Plymouth at around 5pm, and I had decided that I wanted to grab tea and continue on to Whanganui, a further 180km down the road, so I could make good time heading north Sunday morning and catch the Hobbit Film Site Tour at 1pm, however, the car had other plans, and it let me know approximately 20km south of New Plymouth, as you may have guessed it broke down, well sorta, it has been filling the sump with diesel, in short, and as the oil gets thinner the injectors get less and less efficient, until the oil is so thin that they cannot function and the engine stops, so I was against the clock to get some fresh oil, and change it before it stopped and left me stranded. Unfortunately by this time everyone had shut, I was able to get the oil, but I did not have a spanner to drain the sump. So I found somewhere to stay and set up camp.  

The next morning my first stop was Super Cheap for a spanner, then out to find a quiet place to change the oil. Once that was done I continued on my way, towards Whanganui. As it turns out I am glad that things worked out the way they did, had I traveled to Whanganui Saturday night I would have covered most of the distance in the dark, and i would have missed an awful lot.  

The landscape is simply breathtaking

Some more black sand

This was my welcome into Whanganui

I had a look around Whanganui, stopped in at a few shops, took in the sights and then continued on my way, wanting to be back home tonight, and having 400km to traverse, which google told me would take 5.5 hours. And once I got on the road, I discovered why, think Tassie’s West Coast, only way better! State Highway 4, and for around 80km was a magnificent section of road that would be perfect for a Rally, or Targa run! and the view is simply spectacular!

I continued on until I arrived home, doing the last 150km or so in the dark, which I also enjoyed. Google estimated my arrival home at 8:50pm, I got there before 8pm.

This was my score for the weekend. I collect different shot glasses from the places i visit. The bottle on the left contains black sand, a souvenir I collected on Sunday.