A good night’s sleep for both of us, in spite of each having to share a bed with an alleged snorer. The soft foam earplugs loaned to me the night before stayed in their packet.
Two barista quality coffees and then it was time to say goodbye to our lovely hosts and the very nice Havelock North, and head across to Napier.
The trip took longer than usual when the road works detour directed us into even more roadworks. In fact there were numerous roadworks the entire day, all of which looked like they’d been going for a while and unrelated to the recent heavy rain. Mildly annoying but we’re under no time pressure.
Napier was full of bus loads of tourists which were noticeably absent from Hastings. The art deco vibe, due to reconstruction after the 1931 earthquake, does give it a very distinctive look. I must say the art nouveau style that we saw in Alesund in Norway is more to my taste, but it’s still very impressive.
Our first stop was to get some walking shoes for Samantha. Some of these specialised sports shoe shops are very high tech. They even showed us a 3D reconstruction of Samantha’s feet on a computer screen. The shoes were expensive but you feel like it’s value added service over buying something online. The shoe shop was in a pedestrianised zone that was thronged with people. I do not understand shop owners who fight these pedestrianised areas. I’ve never seen one anywhere in the world that isn’t thriving.
From there it was off to the aquarium on the waterfront. For some reason they call themselves the National Aquarium which seems grandiose and rather presumptuous but it’s a pleasant place to spend a couple of hours anyway. We had a special treat in store, though. I had booked us on the little penguin feeding tour. It was great. The penguins are internet celebrities. The aquarium has naughty and nice penguins of the month that they post onto social media, which is a very popular feature. They have around fifteen penguins, mostly rescues from various mishaps out in the wild. There were only four of us in the group, and we fed the little penguins as they came up in turn. They eat little fish called sprats. The tour was a very enjoyable and informative hour, followed by watching two divers feeding fish in the giant fish tank. I took an enormous number of photos at the aquarium but I’ll try to whittle them down a bit.
Mid afternoon we left Napier for Ohakune. Our hosts had recommended we take the Gentle Annie route, which used to be famous for its windy metal backroads, but it has much improved over the years and is now entirely paved. Google maps agreed it was the fastest route so we took it. Fabulous. It was very isolated, though. We had planned to stop somewhere en route for petrol and a drink but there was nothing until we got to Waiouru, which somehow manages to be the bleakest place you can imagine every time I pass through it. We reached Ohakune early in the evening. We haven’t seen Ruapehu yet as it’s covered in cloud. We are staying in a house belonging to the very generous relatives we had already stayed with in Hawkes Bay. Thank you Hamish and Nicola! Enjoy skiing in Canada! Toronto has just had its largest snowfall ever but I think they are on the other side of the country which is an enormous distance away.
A brief trip to the supermarket, and then a quiet night in with pre-made salad and risotto, and then starting a jig saw puzzle whilst drinking ovaltine. Very restful. We’re planning three nights here. Hopefully we’ll get the jigsaw puzzle done even though it’s a very complicated one we bought at the aquarium. It’s on fish of New Zealand but it is mostly comprised of white background.