The drive out of Napier is lovely - past the local marae and Waiohiki golf course. Through wine country - and the increasingly fragmented small grape growers that stretch out along the road (does anyone actually make any money out of them or are they just vanity vineyards?). Then of course, past the more commercial growers - the Gimlett Gravels area, Trinity Hill, Te Awa etc, all interspersed with orchards.
Then onto the straight road that runs through miles of sheep farming country. And yes, the sheep seem to be returning to the land - maybe lamb prices are increasing on the international market. A stop at Onga Onga for a cuppa and a look around - they are clearly making hay on their historic, pioneering past....Back on the road. Down through southern Hawkes Bay - Norsewood and Dannevirke - the small towns that grew out of the Scandinavian bush clearers/foresters that settled in these areas long ago. Hang a left at Woodville (the Manawatu Gorge has closed for some months for road strengthening and clearance following a landslide). And down into the Wairarapa - now on old home turf. Pahiatua - the small town which seemed like the big smoke to Mum when she was a small girl. I remember it as the spot we would stop for an icecream on the drive through, and a play around the old plane painted and mounted in their most excellent childrens playground.
The turn off to Hamua where my great grandfather (an accountant to all the small local dairy factories) had a small farm and where my grandmother grew up - lovely green, rolling countryside. Then heading further south to Eketahuna - pretty deserted these days apart from 3 cafes, a pub, an estate agents office, stock and land agent and a couple of other small concerns. My great grandparents are buried in the local cemetary. Mum was born in the small nursing home that was here a long time ago.
Kaiparoro is just 5 klicks down the road. Faulkner Rd comes off the new bypass that barged it's way through a hill at the back of my Grandads farm. It used to be the main road, but was very winding and there were several big accidents on the corner outside my grandparents farm. The bonus these days is that now it is a quiet road that I can dawdle down and take photos.
Drive up to the Old Coach Road - now mainly an access track - and one of the family farms close by - I remember the dam on it, the huge hay barn, and mustering sheep in the paddocks close by. 
Check out the grandparents place and the home paddock and kite flying hill out the back. Then the Makakahi river across and down the road where we used to swim. And then up to Morgans Rd and my Uncles old house and the shearing shed that I worked in a couple of summer holidays. A lot of names on the rural mailboxes are still familiar to me - lord knows, I'm probably related to half of them.Eventually leave and drive through Masterton, past our old house in College St and past all my old schools - which seem to be freshly painted, gardens planted and blooming. It's gratifying to see the schools so well looked after (and so fit for purpose with large, light classroom blocks, sports fields and courts, rows of bike sheds etc).
Then a quick run through the small towns of the Wairarapa and the long climb up and over the winding road of the Rimatuka Range. The weather has set in, the clouds hug the bush covered hills and persistant rain makes the road slick. The run down the other side towards the motorway and Wellington seems faster then usual - I think they have been straightening the roads, and there is still major work taking place on the hill.
A slow paced, 6 hour journey down memory lane. And 30-40 odd years sit lightly on the landscape - all very familiar territory still.
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