The last leg
of our trip began by boat; retracing our steps (or wake, I guess) across Cook
Strait, back to Wellington.
The sea had changed since our previous
trip though; where the ferry had rolled gently like a lullaby cradle, now it
swayed like a hammock on a windy day. I
found this kinda exciting, but it didn’t agree too well with Rachel’s
tummy. She was very relieved when we
safely chugged into the shelter of Wellington
harbour. But we were both sad to
farewell the South Island – the place which had given us two weeks of
adventures, hot springs, snow, sunshine, forests, a family reunion and
countless miles of stunning scenery.
From Wellington we headed
north, bound for Mark’s bach at Tongapurutu, north of New Plymouth. A stop at a roadside seafood vendor provided
us with some fresh mussels and oysters, which we decided to batter & fry
for our dinner.
As we drew closer
to Taranaki, the sun sank to the horizon and Mt Taranaki showed itself above
the nearer green fields of farmland. The
conical mountain had a good cover of white snow, which gradually changed
colours as the dusk settled towards night until it became a spearhead of orange
thrusting up into the black sky.
The stars
were out as we arrived in Tongapurutu and let ourselves in to Mark’s bach – a
furnished old shipping container. The
big attraction here was the opportunity to have a hot outdoors bath – old
style. Mark has a few bath tubs beside a
small stream, sheltered by manuka trees and ponga ferns, with a few glow worms
hiding on the opposite bank :)
We gathered
our wood & got a fire started beneath the tub as it filled with water. A few manuka leaves on the fire gave the
smoke a beautiful sweet smell, although it still stung our eyes a bit. While the bath water heated, we devoured our
battered shellfish, then returned to check the temperature. Adjusting the bath temperature was a tricky
balance of letting in more cold water through the tap from a spring, or stoking
up the fire and waiting. It didn’t take
long to get the temperature right for us & we jumped in :)
After an
hour of soaking our travel-weary bones, and turning our skin as wrinkly as prunes,
we had to get out & try to quickly get dry & out on some warm clothes
(Taranaki nights in early winter being rather chilly).
After a cosy
night in the steel box we packed up again for the last time & continued on
the last leg of our trip, back home to Raglan.
