It's not quite Nebraska

Greytown: where Arbor day began in 1890. There are a LOT of trees here. It's good.

Really taking the piss

The Tui brewery in Mangatainoka looks just like the one on the shirt. It's funny how signs of Tui are all over the show, despite the fact that DB Breweries pretty much destroyed the town's jobs and whatnot by moving the brewing of Tui beer to the facility in Auckland. I guess they still pay the marketing dollars though.

Tui: Brewed in Mangatainoka since 1899 (until we moved it to Auckland).

Actually the Ravensdown Mangatanoka store must employ a few people; well, a couple at least -- and I don't remember taking a call for it, actually. "Gidday, it's Bill from the Mangatainoka store here". It just doesn't ring a bell.

Crazy vehicles

Hard House Hotel.

A mobile home with a motorbike strapped to the back (looks like a stunt bike or something), some kind of boat on top, and (of all things) a Sky Digital satellite dish mounted to it.

I wonder how they line that up.

All right.

No stopping (unless you're in a hurry)

Do those REDUCE SPEED and REDUCE SPEED NOW signs on the highways mean Hey, if you're going over 100, you might want to stop doing that, and "hey, if you're g oing over 100, STOP IT!?

I just wonder why there isn't a specific speed suggested.

Fitzgerald Glade

Driving through Fitzgerald Glade is a beautiful thing. It's that ad-looking place with the trees up on either side making a sort of arched bridge over top of you. It goes on for a few hundred meters.

Lovely.

Signs of horror

Transcribed almost verbatim from my voice-recorded journey last Christmas:

Near Rotoehu in Whakatane district there's a Something Loop Road which has a sign underneath it that says "No lake access". But the "No lake access" sign looks more like a street sign -- it's all reflective and it also has the "no" covered up unless you go really close. So it looks likes as you're driving past a flashy sign saying "Lake access" and so you could potentially drive down there quickly trying to get to the lake and find that you're out of luck. The stuff of horror films. Maybe.