greg and i got on the road before the others. i got up before him and loaded the van while he had breakfast and showered. even managed to scare a blackbird out of the sliding door at one point.
we had a nice cruisy drive back to waiuku, and i snapped a photo of the kentish, where we went out to dinner. we found the main highway, and made our way to hamilton, where greg had a couple of stops to make.
the first was at a model shop, which was bigger than expected, but nothing there i wanted to buy. we stumbled on hamilton railway station by pure chance and then went to meet up with someone greg had met the previous week who was looking for a particular style of railways house.
he had bought and old milk plant that was the birthplace of not only anchor milk, who i work for now, but also glaxo smith kline, the pharmacuticals company. and if that wasnt enough, he is also tied in with zuru toys, who make robofish and bunch o balloons. the land the plant is on is huge, and used to have railway houses and a station. he is replacing them to make it how it used to be, keeping the exterior character of the structures, while updating and modernising the inside.
he had a set of plan drawers for greg, so we followed him to the plant, and then down into the basement of one area of the plant. american pickers heaven! would love to have a dig there. the cabinet meant we had to unload the back of the van, and then strop everything down so my layout wouldnt shift too much.
once that was done and dusted, we carried on, stopping again at the whanganui river lookout spot, though no trains this time. we stopped at te awamutu so greg could have a snooze [he has to do all the driving, so i was happy for him to stop when he needed] and i checked out the warehouse. nothing special there, and we continued the trip.
the furthur down the country we got, the more the scenery was more familiar and we could sense the end in sight. mount ruapehu appeared first, and then tongariro next to it. we contemplated waiting for a train after seeing green signals, but checking with blair, we were told it could be hours away, and indeed we were home before the others found it.
the remainder of the trip went smoothly, with greg taking his time but also setting a good pace for the last bit.
all in all, the 4 days were absolutely amazing, and i had a blast. nice roads, great people, awesome weather and a couple of days off work. what more can a person ask for?
to greg, blair, lloryian, kylie and keegan, thanks for a top weekend that wont be forgotten in a hurry.
click the first photo below to see all the photos from the weekend.