A Thoroughly Satisfactory Day

It's nearly 11pm.  Still a few hours to sleep.  I might even allow myself a little cheese and a glass of Shiraz.  Reward myself would be more appropriate because I am almost packed up and ready to go which just leaves the bedding to be changed and some vacuuming and so on in the morning and then I have a free day until I leave for the airport at 1630.  I might even get up to date with blog reading!  Mind you I've said that before....

The Nighthawk outside The Lews Castle Grounds, Stornoway.

In fact I was feeling so up-beat after lunch and the weather was so beautiful and warm (24℃ 75℉) that I decided to take the lid off The Handbag and go for a spin.  And that's just what I did.  Now The Handbag is not the world's fastest sports car.  In reality it's a fun car that clings to the road with a great deal more tenacity than the average double deck bus but my staid turbo-charged diesel-driven Nighthawk can outpace it any day.  So off I set into the interior down the Dartmoor Road.  This is a road a few kilometres from where I live but which I hadn't ventured down until last week.  It's a wonderful drivers' road with little traffic and lots of good corners with reasonable visibility and it's also quite wide.  About 20k in it becomes a metaled road (UK/US = graveled road) with very few houses and huge views into the interior of the country and the central mountain ranges.  

Generally speaking I drive quietly because most of my driving is in or near town or on rural state highways.  Today I decided to let the car have its head and, though top speed was modest and well within the legal limit, she really had a blast on the hilly, windy road.  In fact I probably wore more fibre off the brake pads in 50 ks today than in the previous 5 years.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think she did too!

The scenery, too, was teriffic.  I never cease to be amazed by the fact once you leave a town in New Zealand the countryside around it can feel completely isolated:

I would just add, too, that I think it is the first time that I have encountered and driven on a metalled road in Hawkes Bay; something one takes for granted in Northland, for example.