Our last morning of the trip, after an excellent night's sleep at the Shoreline Motel. I don't think I have ever stayed in such a dark hotel room. They should really use that as a selling point!
The rain had finally ceased, though the clouds were still blocking the sunrise so we didn't make any moves towards the door just yet. After we checked out, we went for a drive, grabbed breakfast at the Clive Bakery & Cafe. A poor choice of cafe as the coffee was undrinkable and the food had a stale feel to it... I would not recommend.
We could see the sun for the first time in days and weren't going to head towards home until we made the most of it! We made the climb up to the top of Te Mata Peak (and by climb, I meant the slow car drive LOL). With our heads in the cloud, it was a better view than I could capture! Shooting straight into the sun isn't the best strategy but could not be helped at this time of the day.
After seeing the sights, we ticked off another thing on our list (we missed so much on this trip due to the weather), off to the Maraetotara Falls. There was so much water flow (who would have thought?) and the main waterfall wasn't very pretty looking, but off to the side was a spot that I am told is not usually a waterfall... This was much more photogenic (in my opinion). Plus check out the roots on this tree!
This was our last photo-stop of the trip... After this, we hit the road and drove pretty much all the way back to Wanganui - with just a short stop in at Subway in Bulls for lunch. Back to normality and almost the end of my blog. Next up - the highlights reel.