Bloody Petone

Never, ever stay in Petone. The motels are rubbish, the other people staying in the motels are weird, the sound proofing is non existent. There's always construction or roadworks going on outside. All of that is not a problem, just the joys of travel.

Such wonderful views "by the sea"

The real issue is that the main street of Petone has some really great looking restaurants along it, including one based around Mac n Cheese. So forbidden in my carb-low days but that's not a problem because there is no practical way of actually eating at any of these places. There isn't any parking, that's always absolutely chocka full. If you walk, you're walking down a long stretch of side street that is pitch black with no lighting, and you'll probably get murdered or run down by the road works.

After many, many circuits of the blocks I finally found an empty spot and parked, looking forward to choosing a delicious dinner... and no mask in the car, I'd left it in the motel room. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...

The new Transmission Gully road is fantastic, definitely speeds up the trip between North of Wellington and A Little Less North of Wellington, and is equally scenic if you enjoy wide sweeping vistas of roadway and hill cuttings.

I'm leaving this crazy place early tomorrow morning for a lovely calm cruise across the strait to the lands of steep mountains and tourists driving campervans incapable of making it up them. And of course the logging truck drivers with overloaded trailers, murder on their minds if anyone has the gall to try and pass them and strange bearded folk with their painted hair and flowing dresses tooling about on the road to Nelson making the journey just slightly less terrible than a tooth extraction.