Battling on Regardless

Romany Rambler: Travelled 19549Km; 322 Nights Away

It was a bit like being a Pony Express rider from days gone by, high winds, rain, and the many roadworks we encountered all seemed to conspire to disrupt our journey home, but we battled on regardless.  The heavens opened up as we hooked up the caravan and started off on the 300km trip back to Wellington.  The wind buffeted the car and caravan, and to add to the worry, the oil level light on the dashboard kept flashing on and off during the trip. (We now believe this may be a faulty light and we did check the oil level, all OK). Our first plans were to stop somewhere for the night about halfway.  But with the weather being so unpleasant, and the worry about the car, we carried on driving, just stopping briefly for a home made hot bacon buttie and a cuppa en route. 

We approached the Rimutaka Hill with trepidation – on the previous day winds had been recorded here at 100kms.  Not so good when towing a caravan.  (If the road had been closed due to wind, we would have had to backtrack half the distance already travelled to detour).  But we were pleasantly surprised to find that the wind had dropped right down, and we had left the rain behind us.

Wairarapa  side of the Rimutaka Hill Road snaking up the hill

“I won’t take any more photos of the road works”, I told Robin, but honestly, I just couldn’t help myself.  I wonder if I was an engineer in a former life, or more likely, some type of labouring navvy?

Stop for the red light

Sealing part of the new road

Once over the hill and down the other side it was just a short run home. Here’s the bridge spanning the Hutt River to our suburb.  We’re almost home now.

Off SH2 and over the bridge

Thank goodness we arrived.  Our cat Muffy had been particularly noisy in the back seat the whole trip and seemed quite unsettled.  Maybe she was just tired of all the travelling and wanted to get out and stretch her legs.  In true cat fashion, she showed her displeasure by ignoring the pair of us once we were home, sitting there on the carpet with her back to us for a while.  So who is the boss in our house?  Looks like it is the cat!