We didn’t set the alarm this morning but woke at 8.00am anyway. We’d decided last night that we’d forego the Coromandel and the Bay of Plenty, and concentrate on Rotorua and getting back to Auckland in time for the concert on Saturday evening, so Tom phoned around and we have accommodation booked for both. This will take us up to our flights to Australia on 27th. We’re both starting to feel the strain of being constantly on the move, and the burden has been on Tom driving. He wouldn’t cope with being a passenger on the roads we’ve been travelling and although he’s quite happy to drive, it is quite wearisome. We have enjoyed the times when we have stayed in one place for a few days, thus our latest decision.Today was another day in Napier and we parked all day for $3 on the Marine Parade car park. We bought the town guide for the Art Deco Walk, and followed it, taking loads more piccies of these lovely Art Deco buildings,
and some Spanish Mission ones, which we hadn’t realised were here too.
Before we started though, we went to the café we’d found yesterday that offered free internet access, and Tom was able to load the last two days blogs and check our e-mails. The motel has wireless internet, but the cost is silly - $24.95 for 24 hours. Zenbu doesn’t exist here.The town was still busy, although nearly all traces of the festivities of the last few days had already been removed by the time we arrived at 11.00am. A cruise ship had docked in the harbour and the passengers were bussed into town in their droves. The ship wasn’t meant to be here, but the weather has been so bad in Wellington and Christchurch, where it should have docked, that it came here instead. The local traders reckon that NZ$500,000 would have been spent in the town during the visit – not bad for a few hours, especially on top of the weekend’s trade. We noticed that the Ice Cream Parlour that had only opened on Friday had a notice in the window saying they had had to close to restock and recover from the busy time they’d had!
We stopped to talk to one of the gardeners tidying up the gardens round the Veronica square, and complimented her on the flowerbeds and the general tidiness of the whole town.
She was so proud of her job and pleased that we’d taken the time to comment on it. We’ve found this attitude all over NZ. People seem genuinely to be proud of the work they do and especially proud of their country. They’re keen to hear where we’ve already been and give us information on where to go and what to see. The general absence of litter is such a pleasure. Even with all the thousands of people in town over the weekend, there were few signs of litter anywhere. Graffiti is almost non-existent but wall murals seem to be encouraged instead. Skateboard parks are common, and as we passed the Napier one, we saw the attendant cleaning up some fallen leaves with a dustpan and brush!I don’t know how many miles we walked on our tour but, apart from a coffee stop, we were on the go for 3 hours. Our walking legs have definitely improved – we have no aching calves or sore hips tonight.
Tom stopped off at a barber’s for a haircut at the end of the afternoon while I wandered into a dress shop and talked to the owner - also full of suggestions for our route to Rotorua tomorrow! We found a second hand bookshop and got some more books, as we’ve finished all the ones we had. We’ve decided to send some of our souvenir leaflets and books home by post when we get to Auckland – we’ve collected quite a lot on the way as you can imagine! The Post Office does a range of boxes that will take as much as we can stuff into them up to 20kg. It will mean that we won’t be carting around a load of heavy paperwork – and we might even be able to get everything else into our two original suitcases!!
We’ve eaten in the motel tonight, using up all the remnants of food before we move on tomorrow. Tom had a salad and I had an omelette. It’s now time for bed so, as usual, we wish you all goodnight.
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