We pottered about a bit this morning, although we did confirm that the money from Louise’s house sale went through to her account – Hurrah! Another worry gone……….
We thought we’d pop out to Levin (pronounced Ler-vin) for a looksee this afternoon and a coffee maybe! If I remember, it was the first place we stopped for a coffee on our trek up to Taupo (strangely pronounced Tor-po) two years ago and we had some crepes – well, Louise did, I couldn’t face anything that sweet that early.
We were right, found the cafe, but had passed it by the time we saw it, so went on to the northern outskirts of Levin and stopped at a wine-bar/cafe.
I got caught here sampling some of Louise’s apricot and orange cake while I thought she was taking a picture of the cafe………….doh! Louise thought the cafe grounds looked like an English garden…..until you look at the HUGE palm tree in the background!
Across the road from the cafe was the Route 66 Cafe on SH1 – Fitz, we’ll take a picture next time! While we were coming out of Levin, Louise remembered that we had also passed a Christmas shop on our way up to Taupo two years ago too. So we decided to carry on up the SH1 and see if we could find it.
Passed through Bulls and Foxton on the SH1, but didn’t find the Christmas shop. When we got to Vinegar Hill, we decided that we’d better start back home rather than head for Taihape and Taupo otherwise tea would be a late one………..
Stopped at a lovely picnic spot on the way down the SH54 at the bottom of the first hill. We’ll have to come back with a picnic! There was even a public toilet c/w shower! There were Didymo signs on the way down, NZ are trying to be real careful about spreading it around.
Carried on along the SH54 – note to selves, gorgeous biking road! – and came across the Stormy Point lookout. Some lovely views, the Kiwis certainly know where to put their lookouts!
We headed back down the SH54 through Cheltenham and Feilding (has won competitions for prettiest town – looks suspiciously like Stepford! All manicured borders and well mown grass. We were trying to spot a weed anywhere, but I guess they’ve been removed years ago along with any owner daft enough to let them grow)) and decided to give Palmerston North a miss this time – it took us about an hour to get out of there last time we rode through! We bypassed it to the North and got to Ashhurst where we had to decide whether or not to cross through the Manawatu Gorge and go down the Wairarapa again to the south or travel south directly to Levin and home.
By this time the weather over to the east was looking a bit cloudy, dark and foreboding (learned to stay away from clouds like these while on the bike) and as we hadn’t been down the SH57 to Levin, we decided to head for home.
Not a lot to say about this road really. Glad we weren’t on the bike, weather-wise, as the winds off the Ruahine Range were a bit wild – shame really, as it certainly would be a nice biking road.
When we got home, we decided to get some take-away chips from Raumati Beach. We both had a plated meal, mine was a steak and Louise had a Dory fish (trying very hard not to think of it as Dory from “”Finding Nemo””). The chips were GORGEOUS, we both agreed that they were probably the best chips and fish batter (we did a little tasting session of each others) we had tasted in a while.
To give you an idea, for those who have partaken the odd chip or two in South Devon, the fish and chips were at least on a par with the cod and chips from the Start Bay Inn at Slapton Sands (even if the fish portion wasn’t quite so big/ample/ridiculously lots as the Start Bay portions)! And that IS both a surprise and saying something of their quality…………….. I wonder if the chip shop do curries??