Silja: Kakahi– Forgotten-World-Highway - Mt Taranaki - Wellington

I do not suppose anybody has ever heard of Kakahi, a tiny village off Highway 4 south east of Taumarunui, virtually in the middle of nowhere and thus not easy to find. We tried anyway because it said «Glow Worms» in our map. The strange thing was that that was our only information and it was not mentioned in any other tourist map of the area or on any signs. Kakahi was so dead that it took some time til we found somebody we could ask. We stopped a tractor on a farm and after some joking around with us, a young man jumped on a quad and showed us the way on unpaved roads (I sure hope the rental company is not reading this) through fields and meadows to the point where the narrow road cut rather deep into the terrain. The walls on either side were several meters high and overgrown by fern and higher up by trees, so the joining canopies gave it a cave-like appearance. We found a spot nearby to camp and returned after dinner, when it was getting dark. What we saw in there was magical! There were glow worms all over the walls, sitting together in what appeared to be clouds of stars forming dachshounds, horses, mermaids and many more. The really quite tired children were spellbound. Then Axel turned on his head lamp and picked up a few slimy worms off the wall for further inspection.

The next day we took the Forgotten-World – Highway from Taumarunui to Stratford. That was a great drive through deep gorges and  lush forests aswell as green hills. The weather was great, but the forecast was not, so we were hoping to catch a glimpse of Mt Taranaki (also known as Mt Egmont) befor sundown. We did see its perfect cone shape in a haze with the pointed, snowy topp sticking out of the clouds. We never saw its summit again... The weather was so bad that we went to the Aquatic Center in New Plymouth, to give the kids a chance to move and get clean at the same time. We walked along the seaside and through  the city center of this nice little city, until a major power cut put an end to it all. Some shops closed because the security system was out of order, while ohers were unable to work their cashregisters – and it started to rain again... We left New Plymouth and drove around the mountain the next day, but still no luck.

We drove on to Wangerei, a pictoresque town that looked good even in all this rain. Between spells we visited Victoria Park, where we walked around the lake, which was home to all kinds of ducks, geese, swans etc. and there were more birds to be seen in a walk-in- voliere. When it started to rain again, we fled to an indoor «Winter Garden» with a Chistmas theme and an artsy outdoor gallery attached to it. Here the theme was «Looking at you looking at me» an my sister Christin would have loved it!

The next day it was raining constantly! We drove towards Wellington and the only time we left the motorhome was to walk through Waitarere forest, where - according to Axel – the scene of Gollum talking to himself about «Precious» was filmed. The weather was actually perfect for that eerie setting!

When arrived in Wellington it was still raining but now Marit and Jakob opened their big, beautiful  house with four great kids to play with. We are all having a blast! After a day in Wellington and the  Te Papa museum we are now preparing dinner - or truth be told: Jakob cooks and we pretend to help. This is cooking on a whole different level than what Königs do... Looking forward to this mouth watering happening!