We got the car and drove up to the DoC to inform them we were down safely. Then we took off south through the Wanganui Gorge (featured in LoTR) to Wanganui.
As we rolled into town the car began to act up. It had been doing some funny things and the battery light had been turning on since before we got the car (it was on when we were picked up at the airport i'd noted). But never as funny as this. I turned off the lights, wipers, and A/C and we made our way into town. We got to the DoC where we were headed and got information on a place to stay in the Eastern Ruahine's. We planned to drive over and check out Napier and then go West into the Ruahine's for another night of hut sleep.
When we got back to the car it wouldn't start so we called up the AA people who sent a car. After waiting 20 minutes I gave the car another try and it started. We headed out of town and called them up saying we no longer needed a rescue but the car began to act funny after just a couple kilometers. I stopped the car at a gas station and turned it off. This time when I tried turning it off it gave no hint of trying to start. We called for help and it arrived in only ten minutes. We were very impressed by the service. The gentleman gave my battery a jolt and told me to follow him. The car broke down in the middle of the road on the way to the shop and the guy came back and hit me with another jolt. We drove into the shop where we found out that the car's alternator was shot and that it couldn't be replaced for a couple days.
We called Apex and they told us the best they could do was send us another car up from Wellington the next day and we told them that would be fine. We found a hostel in Wanganui for the night and the guy running the auto shop gave us a lift with our stuff.
Waiting at the car shop while they have a look. They had real drip coffee!!
Here's our hostel room. It was very nice and totally inexpensive for the quality.
The next morning we grabbed breakfast at "The Cracked Pepper" (if i recall) and I had the best Eggs Benedict I ever have (as I certainly recall). Rachel had some crazy focaccia french toast or something. With kiwifruit!
We got the car and headed east to Napier. The guy who brought us the car had a spare battery and tried to drive the car back down to Wellington on two fully charged batteries instead of waiting to get the alternator fixed in Wanganui.
The drive we took to Napier, called the Taihape - Napier road, was fantastic. Part of it was unsealed but our new car could definitely take it.
We cruised into Napier with its art deco style.
And drove up a hill to get a look out at the main shipping bay and the town.
Then we headed west to the Ruahines to get some sleep. The hut we were looking for appeared to be immediately on the side of the road and there was little information in the pamphlet I'd bought describing how to get to it. We ended up driving around in the sticks looking for DoC signs for an hour before getting totally frustrated and stopping at the first farmer's house we could. The farmers were very nice to us and called up someone they thought would know about the hut and we found out the hut we were trying to access was now accessible only via private land and was no longer even a DoC hut! Though this wasted heaps of our time we did see some very dramatic light and scenery.
We altered our plans a bit and headed south to another hut that was supposed to be a 20 minute walk in. By this time it was totally dark. I nearly drove right over a sheep sitting in the middle of the road which would have been a real bummer. We got in to the hut, called "Triple X Hut", and crashed.
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