Our trip to Auckland; snow and a gunman!

'Twas a very normal sojourn when it started out! Sammo flew from the five day NZ Reading Association conference in Queenstown direct to Auckland and Sadie drove from Greytown to Auckland airport to pick up Sammo and then on to Little Russia in Remmers for R&R. All very pleasant, well lubricated and fed. Visited two retirement villages, Grace Joel in St Heliers and Edmund Hillary in Remmers; (looking well ahead, what?)

On Saturday took in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra courtesy of, ANZ Private Bank and Ian and Olga. It was in the Auckland Town Hall last visited for Kristina's graduation ceremony last century prior to some posh nosh at the Kermadec restaurant to salivate and celebrate (in that order). Great visit to Little Russia for four nights and great to catch up with Ian, Olga, Tania and little Demyan.

Well that's where normality ended. Left Remmers at 9am heading for Taupo and lunch at Piccolo (our favourite). Southerly storm predicted for the afternoon so (wise?) Sadie took the Taupo/Napier road highway 5. Less chance of snow on that road said Sadie (she who knows about snows and the central plateau). Well! 3/4's of an hour into travel Sammo says, "Those cars coming towards us are covered in snow!" And they were too. 10 minutes later we also had snow on the CRV and the snow got heavier and heavier. Doing about 20 kph and in lower gears and then crawling at 10 kph or less in low gear both up and down the hills. Cars in front started to slip, sideways, backwards and at various angles. CRV plodded on carefully with no problems until a mad bastard behind decided to overtake a row of five cars who were slipping. The mad bastard in a rear wheel drive panel van ended up alongdside going sideways. Wrestling with the wheel and braking and wheel spinning. Doughnuts on ice, what? Things settled and the next hour was low gear till we dropped below 750 metres when it all became cold rain again.

Ariived in Napier to hear on the radio that many vehicles were stuck in ice and snow on the said highway an hour behind us. In fact some 250 vehicles and 500 persons were rescued by the NZ Army and the Napier four wheel drive club over the next 48 hours. Many had to spend overnight stuck in their cars and then in local marae for two days. Cars were all finally cleared and towed 3 days later. We were lucky we were right at the front and about 1/2 hour before the snow began to get really heavy (up to 1 metre). Very unseasonal. For the record the Desert Road, highway 1 also got closed with vehicles and people stuck as well.

That was the easy part and now for the gunman. We were heading south on highway 50 reminiscing about snow and 4WD's and had just got onto highway 2 near Takapau when Hello! there was a line of stationary traffic, some 60 cars in front all stopped and a cop car in front with its lights flashing. Well, over 1 hour later a friendly driver and his dog was passing down the line of traffic now some 3 kms in length to tell us a gunman was on the loose and a Police block was in place. We got out of the line about 30 minutes later and headed back north to Takapau to find a way around to the east. No way, at Takapau there was another road block. So back to Waipukurau watching the Armed Defenders' Squad racing back to the road blocks.

Booked into the Tuki Tuki motel for the night and had a good feed at the pub next door. Waipukurau was booked out with many having to go further north to Waipawa. Next morning the public were advised that a by-pass was operating around the cordon around Norsewood. So, off we went. A narrow country road with big articulated trucks, cars and much slush, mud and rain. 1 hour later for about 15 kms we were back on highway 2 heading south. That's right, we didn't stop till we got to Greystone. Left Remmers Sunday and back in Greystone 26 hours later, normally 8 1/2 hours driving time.

Gunman was captured on Tuesday (in the Norsewood Golf Course toilets) dishevelled and suffering from hypothermia after two nights on the run in very cold conditions. Great relief for the farmers and workers around the Norsewood area who were locked inside their homes for protection during the siege.

Next trip is to New Plymouth to celebrate Thomas Harvey's 5th birthday! Wonder what amazing adventures await?