Wonderful Wairarapa

We recently enjoyed a day in the wonderful Wairarapa with our SLG friends.  Leaving Levin bright and early our 122km journey took us past major road works along the way, coming along well, by the look of it.  Let’s just hope they all meet up in the middle when completed.  We had a quick stop at Pauatahanui Inlet, with a glorious view over the estuary.

Pauatahanui Estuary

Once through our old home town of Upper Hutt, we drove up and over the Rimutaka Hill.  Always plenty of traffic on the hill, including many big trucks – most of them seemed to be loaded up with logs. We stopped to take a photo of this handsome new sign at the entrance of Featherston.  Can you see the shiny black bantam rooster at the base of the sign?  He was clucking away and enjoying the sunshine. Our friend Les was organizing our day out, and we met at his home in Featherston for coffee and cake. 

New sign at Featherston

Morning tea over, plus a good catch up with our SLG friends, we drove through to Greytown for lunch.  Greytown is a pretty little town, quite a trendy place and chock full of shops and cafes.  Our stop for lunch was the Corner Café, a popular establishment with an extensive menu.  Orders coming to our table included a couple of variations of their  fancy home made pies, and a couple of fish meals.  Les couldn't go past his old favourite, lambs fry and bacon, and I enjoyed a plate of locally grown  Parkdale Mushrooms on toast.  After lunch some of us popped in to see Les’s wife Anne, a much loved former SLG member who is now cared for in a local  Rest Home. 

 

The Corner Café

Our last visit of the day was to stop at Schoc Chocolates,  makers of hand made chocolates.  In December 2002 Schoc Chocolates was born. In a tiny turn-of-the century cottage, in gourmet Greytown’s main street (the original confectioners shop), owner and creator Murray Langham of the Chocolate Therapy books opened the doors for customers to buy his sumptuous hand-made chocolates.

My excuse for stopping here, as if I really needed one, was to buy something to pop in with my daughter’s birthday gift.  With 60 flavours available, it was lucky that we could have a few tastings to help us make up our mind.  I found a little something for Nicky, and an interesting  cake of raspberry, pear and apple dark chocolate came home with us.

Schoc Chocolates in Greytown

Saying farewell to our friends, we started on the return journey, getting caught up in homeward bound traffic once we reached SH1.  We were in stop-start mode for half an hour as the traffic banked up between Plimmerton and Pukerua Bay – it’s  always a bottleneck here.

Hardly moving at all along this stretch of road

The sun had set on the last part of our journey and we finally made it home.  Our cat Gemma was so pleased to welcome us, winding round and round our legs, after all, she had been home alone all day.  I think it was just cupboard love, as she soon settled down to the business of eating her dinner when I filled her dish.