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Taupo - Wellington via Turangi and Palmerston North

This was the day we’d been dreading since we planned the trip. Why? Coz we’ll be driving from Taupo to Wellington, which takes…oh…5 to 6 hours? *gulp*

We awoke to see gloomy skies and rain washing away our chance of taking any photos of Lake Taupo. After checking out (and meeting the motel owner’s beautiful cat!), we drove along Lake Taupo towards Turangi. The journey took about 45 minutes, but it was quite a scary drive because of the strong winds, rain, and the fact that some parts of the roads were along a cliff.

Turangi has a really really small town center, but we did manage to find a place for breakfast: Mustard Seed Cafe. Both hubby and myself ordered their French Toast with Bananas and Bacon. When breakfast arrived, it looked so good that I asked hubby to help get my camera from the car so that we could take a few pics. A few minutes later, he came running in…my camera wasn’t there!! *groan* We quickly called the motel and yup…we left it behind (the owner was trying to call us but both our phones were switched off!). Oh well, since she’d already found it, we continued enjoying our delicious breakfast before backtracking all the way back to Taupo to collect it. On the bright side, the shops in the town center were all open by the time we reached Taupo, so hubby was able to buy his thimble!

With an additional one-and-a-half hours added to our already butt-numbing-long journey, we decided to just take it slow…no point of rushing, right? After all, it’s a holiday…=)) The scenery along the way was pretty monotonous…coupled with the rain and gloomy weather, there wasn’t much to see and I dozed off a couple of times. About one-third into our journey while we were travelling across a flat plain, the skies cleared up though and lo and behold…a beautiful rainbow appeared! *jumps happily up and down* Even though it was still drizzling slightly, we stopped the car along the highway and snapped some photos…it’s not often that you see a full rainbow, y’know? *grin* The sunny skies remained for awhile and we were able to almost reach one end of the rainbow…no pot of gold though, sorry to disappoint y’all!

Foodwise, we stopped at another town and had KFC for lunch, and when we reached Palmerston North, we dropped by at Robert Harris Cafe for tea. Leaving Palmerston North was a problem though…there weren’t any clear signs leading to the highway and we made a few wrong turns before reaching the correct road.

The weather got worse from Palmerston North onwards, and at certain parts on the road, traffic was backlogged for quite a long way. The worst was when we were nearing Wellington…the rain was so heavy, we were driving along the coast and saw huge waves crashing along the barrier…and the highway was reduced to one lane! *wails* By the time we reached Wellington, we were seriously exhausted…only to be confronted by one last traffic jam along the road leading to Bolton Hotel.

What a nightmare! =(

It was such a relief to reach the hotel, and once we’d brought all our luggages up to the room (small, but cosy!), I was so reluctant to go out again…*sulks* But dinner awaits! Armed with a Wellington city map and our trusty itinerary, we decided to search for 99 Boulcott Street Bistro. Many many wrong turns later, we finally found the restaurant. The warm inviting glow of the restaurant was indeed a welcome sight after 10 minutes or so of going around in circles!!

The restaurant was pretty packed, so we were really lucky to get a table. As I wasn’t feeling very hungry, I opted for two starters, Seared Scampi Tails on Ratatouille Tart with Saffron and Garlic Mayonnaise and the Fried Haloumi on Roasted Vegetable Tart with Baby Herb Salad, while hubby had the Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Wild Mushroom Tortellini and the Braised Lamb Shank with Desiree Potato Mash and Roasted Winter Vegetables. The food was pretty good, I particularly liked the Fried Haloumi. We declined dessert though, as we had in mind another place to try later: Strawberry Fare.

After dinner, hubby decided to test his driving skills by driving up Mt. Victoria. Not the best thing to do at night! I was literally panicking as we went higher and higher coz the roads were winding and the passenger side of the road did not have any barriers (my palms were sweaty, ok? I’m that afraid of heights!). Luckily for me, he gave up after a while coz the roads became really narrow (methinks he got scared to…haha…). We drove back down and headed for Strawberry Fare which was situated along Kent Terrace. Unfortunately, we arrived too late and they’d already stopped serving…=( So no desserts for us…boo hoo.

With nothing else to do for the night, we took a short drive around the city centre to familiarize ourselves with the roads (this city needs some serious road planning…the roads are so confusing!!) before heading back to the hotel.

Luckily, Boulcott had satellite TV so we spent the rest of the night watching E! Entertainment. Oh ok…I spent the night watching E!, hubby was reading one of his many many magazines…=))

PS: Check out our photos here!