We woke to the alarm again, both feeling doubtful starters. Wyn had a bad sore throat, and I just felt crook – needing more sleep. We debated staying put – and seeing the impressionists exhibition in Te Papa, but it was going to be costly, maybe $10 per park after 8am! We debated driving north – but it was goign to take a while to clear the city and find soewhere to park up. So we headed around Oriental Parade, and found three parallel parks at Evans Bay. We both slept to after 10am. Wyn still had an awful throat, but at least I felt better, and OK to drive. So we had a belated breakfast, and headed off to find north. SH1 was just around the corner, and it was relatively straightforward getting out of the city. The wind was getting up, but driving was OK for a start. We went looking for soem beach at Raumati. We did a couple of circuits, inclding going through the same roadworks twice – not sure what the workers throught. Eventually we found somewhere to park at Paraparaumu. Wyn slept for another couple of hours, and then we had lunch, before heading north again. By the time we stopped at the supermarket in Levin and got going again, the wind wind had picked up. it was very windy from then on, a howling cross-wind – probably as bad as a Canterbury norwester a couple of years ago. There were a few scary moments, coming in and out of windbreaks, and crossing bridges. And a couple of times we both wondered what would happen if it got any worse. The Foxton straights were white-knuckle territory, and the campervan drivers going the other way didn’t look too relaxed either.
It wasn’t so bad once we turned off at Bulls, and before long we were parked up at Wyn’s brother’s place at Marton – the house where Wyn lived a long time ago. It was time for cups of tea, and tea, and a relax – it had been a funny sort of day.