The First Seventy Years: 139 - Opunake
...The ferry trip from Wellington to Picton on the northern tip of South Island was pure magic. Gill had advised us not to take the fast ferry in order that we would be able to savour the beauty and delight of sailing through the Marlborough Sound...
Eric Biddulph and his wife Mary continue their cycle tour of New Zealand.
The following morning we caught the bus to New Plymouth. We were on our way to see Gillian Danson and her partner Vince, both keen and active cyclists from the UK. Riding out of New Plymouth en route to their house at Opunake, we had only covered fifteen kilometres when they met up with us in their car.
Very much out on a limb on the far west reaches of North Island the area is by-passed by most tourists who prefer to proceed directly between Auckland in the north and Wellington at the southern tip. Opunake has the feel of a deserted town; a place that had known better times but was now experiencing the loss of its young people to the bigger cities where they will have better employment opportunities. The area nevertheless, has good agricultural land and oil and gas deposits have been discovered. A renaissance maybe on the horizon.
Gill was a teacher at the local primary school and Vince was teaching mathematics at a secondary school. They were both active on the cycle racing scene on the North Island as well as undertaking extensive tours of both islands. They lent us their car to go and visit the Stratford Pioneer Museum about thirty kilometres distance. It contained exhibits of the early English settlers and presented an historic record of life at that time.
On the way back we called in to see Gill at her school where she was one of only two teachers. Vince drove us to Harewa to pick up the bus for Wellington. Some five hours later we arrived in the wet and dull capital. Rowena Lodge Hostel in the suburban back streets was to be our base for the next two nights. The highlights of our visit to Wellington included Te Papa Maori heritage museum; Parliament Building, only recently completed at the time of our visit and nicknamed 'The Beehive' owing to its unusual appearance; a trip by cable car up to the Botanical Gardens.
The ferry trip from Wellington to Picton on the northern tip of South Island was pure magic. Gill had advised us not to take the fast ferry in order that we would be able to savour the beauty and delight of sailing through the Marlborough Sound. Having enjoyed ourselves during three hours of paradise we were ill-prepared for the steep climb which faced us as soon as we disembarked. This was to be the first of many tough climbs we encountered over the next few days until hitting the west coast en-route to the Tasman Sea. It was bucketing down with rain as we hit Nelson youth hostel.
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Eric’s book The First Seventy Years can be obtained for £10 by contacting http://mary@bike2.wanadoo.co.uk or telephoning 01484-658175.
All the cash raised by the book goes to a water aid project in Malawi.
