Highway 99 - end of the road

"Upon landing at Bluff, I immediately asked to be shown some Maoris, but was told that they were very scarce in that part of the country. Indeed ... it seemed as though I might as well have asked for a moa!" (AnthonyTrollope, English author, upon his arrival in Bluff in1872).

Well, my road trip made me driving so far some 3333 km: from Cape Reinga up-most North, crossing the heartland "Middle Earth" and Cook straight, down South till the road came to its end - Stirling Point at 46°36'53" 168°21'21" - just to learn that the settlement of Bluff entitles itself as the town "where the highway begins". That's probably a fair indicator for "halfway" round ... with more fabulous scenic outlooks back up along the west cost ahead.

By the way, or should I better say "off course", it's raining outside down South. No bluff! Only one tough couple challenges the gusty wind to capture the "must-do" picture, posing in front of the famous road direction indicator at kilometer "zero" of New Zealand's Highway #1. It comes into my mind that I had the same experience up most North: rain showers out of nowhere. Indeed, there must be a reason why the Kiwi land is that green; bright green, dark green, lush green, wet green, ... I'm lovin' it! As long as I did not already put up my tent.

And while I was lucky last two nights to camp at amazing Purakanui Bay, today's rain pushed by stormy winds against my car - parked right on top of the dunes at Orepuki beach - will force me to spend a less romantic night backside of my hatchback Corolla. It doesn't seem right now like a Toyota, more a Titanic facing rough sea. If the weather won't calm down, I can't even be sure in this most southern location to hit this night an ice-berg ...

ps: Some 80 million years ago, before land-based mammals had arrived on the scene, "middle earth" broke away from the ancestral landmass of Gondwana. As a result the flightless, long-necked Moa, the tallest of which could browse forest foliage up to 4 meters off the ground - evolved in undisturbed isolation. Today, their only surviving relative in NZ is the Kiwi. The picture above eventually shows the "petrified forest" at Curio Bay, dating back some 180 million years ago.