Napier and beyond
Well bit of a drought of blog posts for the last while. Lack of a decent internet connection and prolonged daytime driving, plus the whole having to take out and put away the laptop coupled with my sloth like lifestyle have contributed to this fact.
We have since left Taupo, where Caroline did her adventurous skydive from 15,000 feet upon high. Very impressive photo’s to mark the occassion so seemingly was well worth the money. May consider doing it in Queenstown, we’ll see how it plays out.
From Taupo we headed east towards Napier. A dull and dreary road really, 140 odd kilometre’s of nothing at all. Napier itself was a bit of a one horse town/city. Art Deco modelling was the order of the day after an earthquake levelled the original city and the twonship decided on the retro look for the new order. A nice place to while away a day mind you so was worth the trip. From there it was on to neighbouring Hastings, litterally 10 minutes away. A town/city of comparable size to Napier, but not as fancy. Only breezed through there really, onto another town nearby called Havelock North. Keeping in mind that this is hardcore wine country, Havelock is the blonde haired rich wife town comprised of Lattes and Land Rover’s. We ascended a peak nearby which gave pretty spectacular views which seemed to dwarf the van which was parked in the distance. Also we were buzzed by a low flying plane which added to the overall feeling of being up very high.
From there we decided that seeing as it was 12 midday and we had seen most of Hastings (where we were planning to stay the night) it would be hard to kill that amount of time really. We drove on back West across country to Palmerston North to have a look, visited Feilding and from there back south in Wellington direction, stopping overnight at Otaki Beach HolidayPark.
Otaki Beach seemed better on paper than in the flesh but provided a better rest bite stop than other alternatives. We pushed south again to Lower Hutt, nearly 15-20 minutes drive outside of Wellington central to spend the night at there Top 10 resort. It was now nearing the time to panic and rush buy Christmas presents for each other. On the 23rd we went to Wellington central to get our respective gifts. This was a day of panic and high blood pressure. I was searching for a particular mobile phone for Caroline who had mentioned in passing that she would like it. Apparently gold dust was easier to find that a shop stocking an LG Viewty mobile phone! After 3 hours hovering between a plethora of stores, finally a very helpful guy in a vodafone store told me there was 1 left in their Lower Hutt store! Again a dash back to Lower Hutt and a dash up through a Shopping Centre escalator to make sure I was the one who got that phone! Happy Ending, I did. So after stopping at the gift wrap station, to make sure Caroline had no idea what was going to be given to her I was finally finished!
So now as I type this we are in our room here at the Intercontinental Hotel Wellington, very nice, very swish! Van parked below (valet @ $30 a day!) still it’s a nice break and worth the exorbitant cost, plus a good breakfast everyday makes the difference :D
We plan to have lunc h at a local restaurant which we booked in advance, so we shall see the Kiwi take on a Turkey dinner. After that it will be a walk about the CBD seeing as it’s pretty much a ghost town now at the moment so we can see if there’s anything open (which I doubt!).
Hope everyone has a very Happy Christmas, keeps the antacid’s handy, and enjoys the Christmas Dinner!
Happy New Year and all the best for 2009