The Ostrom Family Adventures

We crossed the Maungaharuru mountains just east of Lake Taupo and drove thr 4 hours south-east to Napier for lunch. This is a gorgeous town on the east coast in Hawke’s Bay with the most beautiful long park along the esplanade. We’ll definitely be back for more Napier time, but this time we had a mission.

After a delicious lunch and drive up and down the esplanade, we continued south another 1.5 hours to the beautiful and incredibly bustling area of Porongahau! 😉

We made our first attempt to find the longest place name in the world. After 3 dead ends at gates to public property – courtesy of apple maps, we finally found the sign! We will have to return to Hawke’s bay for the 3 hour hike to the actual location another time.

(Or the hill where the man with the big knees played his flute for the one he loved).

We drove back towards the beach as the moon rose – nearly full over the abundant sheep fields of central Hawke’s bay.

We camped the night at Porongahau beach and the sun came up again!! I don’t know why we all don’t wake up every morning celebrating this miracle with song and dance or quiet awe!! It is absolutely the most gorgeous gift of a loving creator!

On the way down to Wellington we passed the cute little viking town of Dannevirke!

And saw someone had harvested a bit of venison! A 10-point Stag! That’s also a NZ ad for Totota Hilux’s.

Then we made our way back over the Tararua mountain range and the abundant wind farms!

We made our way to the Queen Elizabeth park just south of Paraparaumu. We found it because we followed a sign for the US Marines memorial. There was a small rapidly built base in that small community in 1942-1943 as they trained, prepared and recovered from fighting with the Japanese after the Pearl Harbour attack. It was fascinating and a strong reminder of how small our Earth can be, especially when there is war.

The park itself was huge and mixed use with many incredibly well behaved horses jumping over so many obstacles and cyclists, runners, kids everywhere! We took a quick 45 minute long bike ride through some of the trails to the beach and made PB&J’s at the car for lunch.

We arrived in Wellington in perfect time to check in for the ferry to Picton. We passed out of the Wellington harbour and crossed the Cook straight with faint hazy views of the South Island growing steadily more clear.

The south bit of the North Island.