taranaki countryside

I have lived in some rural places in my life. A couple of them were on dirt roads, which is understandable when there are just a few houses in the area. There was even a dirt road that was a shortcut to work (it probably had a name, but I never knew it) when I lived in Kansas, so I'm used to dirt roads.

The thing that I'm not used to--and that still makes me giggle on occasion--is the fact that the paved roads in the outlying areas sometimes just turn into dirt and gravel. I imagine the crew paving the road using up all the asphalt and just saying, 'She'll be right,' and going home.

We went down one of those today when I left the directions at the house and we were just winging it, looking around the countryside. [I do have to add that Hubby remembered most of the directions he had written down. Thank you, Hubby!]

We started and ended with a street sign naming the road we were on, but in the middle--as we went up and over a saddle (NZ word for a mountain pass)--the pavement turned to gravel and dirt. It was obviously the 'road less taken' because the sheep ran away from the car as we rode by. After we started down the other side, the asphalt reappeared like magic.

I really enjoy these rides that have no particular objective except to see the countryside around us. The hills are amazing to me and I never tire of seeing sights like this:

I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore

New Zealand roads

One of the many differences between the US and NZ is the road system. In the US, you can take several roads to get out of just about any town, no matter how small. Here, every place has basically two ways to go if you are trying to get to the next city. The inland cities of Hamilton and Palmerston North have more than two ways out, but that's not much to brag about.

Here's a map to show you what I mean:

Hubby sometimes takes me on some minor detours when we go out, but it's nothing at all like 'getting there another way'. The downside of the road system here that you have to see the same things over and over if you are going in a direction you've already been.

Being that we live in Taranaki (the lump on the left side of the island), we travel Highway 3 a lot. There is a point where you can see:

Mt. Taranaki/Mt Egmont on one side of the road

And Ruapehu on the other side.

It's a small compensation, but I never saw anything like this in Kansas!