Roadsideamerica.com

Roadsideamerica.com has become a favorite website of mine when doing any kind of roadtrip in the USA. It lists tons of weird, off the beaten path things to see in both big cities and small towns alike. You never know when you are going to be near the worlds' biggest ball of twine, the SPAM museum, or The Field of Dreams. I highly suggest using this website the next time you travel just to see what fun and unique things are near your travels.

I bring this up because today I had a roadsidenewzealand experience. I visited a place, recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records, as having the 2nd longest place name in the entire world and longest in a country where English is spoken. The name on the sign that marks the hill is:

"Taumata­whakatangihanga­koauau­o­tamatea­turi­pukakapiki­maunga­horo­nuku­pokai­whenua­kitanatahu,"

which roughly translates as 'The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed, and swallowed mountains, known as landeater, played his flute to his loved one.' 

I almost never pose in my own pictures but this seemed worthy

Stacey and I rented a car for the day essentially to see this place. We drove 90min to get there and then immediately turned around and came right back to town so that she could catch her bus home and leave me all by myself. My trip just got real. I will now be traveling by myself for the rest of the trip.

My last few days have been spent in Napier, which is a coastal beach town known as the Art Deco Capital of the World. An earthquake leveled this area in 1931, and raised the ground 8 feet. They rebuilt the town in an art-deco style to save some money. It has a little bit of a feel of San Diego. The town essentially shuts down at 5pm, but it is a major wine producing region. We went on a wine tour yesterday for 60 bucks a person. A van picked us up from the hostel and then drove us to 4 wineries where we essentially got to taste every wine those wineries produced. Anywhere from 5-8 generously poured tastings. A cheese platter of some relatively fancy cheeses was also included.  This was just about the first good value I have come across in Australia or New Zealand.  We even went to dinner with people from the tour our age, 2 Americans from Charlotte and a woman from London, and drank more wine. It was a pretty good day.  After Stacey left me, I then drove to Cape Kidnappers and joined a Gannet Safari tour. 500 foot tall limestone cliffs and hundreds of these birds nesting and diving into the ocean below in search of food. Stunning views.

I will be off to Wellington tomorrow to photograph a lighthouse and then will cross over to the south island and go down to Dunedin for another lighthouse and another highly
anticipated roadsidenewzealand stop.  I will run/walk up the steepest road in the world. Who needs scenery?