Travel day, Windy day

Today we headed south to the southern tip of the north island of New Zealand. Last night the thunder ripped across our motel seeming to boom simultaneously in wide arcs.  When it rained, it rained in horizontal walls of water. I suspect we witnessed 1/2 inch of rain in 5 minutes.  When morning sprung, it was dark and windy, growing in intensity as we drove. Trees were down and portions of the road looked like a defective wood chipper was tossing tree parts everywhere on road. We stopped for lunch in a Norwegian town called Dannevirke. The lunch was marginal so we thought we would look for dessert some place else. The Pat began yelling and ran across the street and hugged Liz and John, some of Caro's family.  We sat and drank coffee and marveled at what a small world it is. They live near Christchurch and invited us for our departure dinner on Pat's birthday.

After that we dropped into another wine area and did a bit of tasting before we arrived at windy Wellington. Oh and sorry kiwi drivers for driving on the wrong side. I drove today for an hour or so.