Wellington to Palmerston North

I took the train from Wellington Station to Plimmerton to fetch our Pacific Horizons campervan. The van had an air of familiarity after our January south island trip. This one is slightly bigger than the last. I drove directly to the Kilbirnie Pak ‘N’ Save to load up on supplies, leaving the children with the babysitter while Hillery worked.



Back at Chevening, Sawyer helped me load the van while Ivy slept. To distract him and keep him quiet, I let him play in the van, which was parked on the sidewalk. From the living room windows, I watched him pretend to drive and shoot pedestrians with his imaginary pistol.

I strapped the kids into their seatbelts at around four-thirty and headed toward downtown to collect Hillery. Rush hour traffic was heavy. State Highway 1, the major artery to Auckland and points between is a winding two-lane highway, but a scenic route it takes to the Kapiti Coast before turning inland to farm country around Palmerston North. Sharp, mostly bald hills shape the landscape. Autumn is here and more evident away from coastal Wellington.

We stopped at La Casa Romana, a little cheese shop and café in Otaki, for pizza.



We arrived at Aunt Julia and Uncle’s Nicholas’ lovely house on Savage Crescent in Palmerston North at around 8 o’clock. The grown-ups had decaf espresso with Baileys. Uncle Nicholas again tried to explain rugby to me.



We fell into our campervan routine with relative ease. Sawyer slept in the loft, Hillery and I slept in the stern, and Ivy slept in the middle berth.

“Palmy” is on flat land. The streets are wide and straight. The houses sit in neat rows.

After a quick breakfast the next morning we went to nearby Fitzherbert Park to play on the playground, have a break at the café, and tour the wonderful-smelling rose garden.




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