Next stop Napier – Easter 06

Over the Easter weekend, we drove down to a very rural town called Waipukarau on the East Coast to visit Sarah-Jane and John Peez and their great kids Luke and Annaliese.  Sarah-Jane was my room-mate in my first year at Durham – and is such a star, so it was lovely to catch up with her and her ever expanding family and meet hubby John - thank you SJ, John, Luke and Annaliese.

Highlights of the trip were the most delicious roast on our arrival, catching up on the years, playing Easter bunny and hiding chocs around the house.   Easter morning in their very lively church in Waipuk. (as it is called by the locals) was also a treat.

[Ed - Serious dufflight of the week was that fresh from the menders fixing an oil leek, our car died another death...this time 6 hours and 400 windy km from home!]

So having hired a very smart big new car [Ed - the only one the lovely Ruth at Thrifty had, and at a non-sensically cheap price...she just kept knocking off costs - think Mr Incredible giving out insurance], we journeyed on…Napier is an interesting place to pass through – with its Art Deco buildings built following the 1931 earthquake and the drive along the road on land that was forced up out of the seabed during that quake.  This country is a Geographer’s delight. 

We stopped off for a touch of paradise – at The Mission vineyard – where we enjoyed a delicious lunch outside after having sampled a few Chardonnays and Reislings….Phil played his favourite game of ‘Guess which wine this is’ and as you can see in the photo….he is beginning to look frighteningly like a wine buff. 

Off on towards Roturua…. where we checked out some geothermal hot pools for a swim, walked through the smelly mists created by mudpools just openingup in the middle of the public park in town (pretty scary to think thatas you walk another one could just open beneath you!) and had a fab afternoon mountain biking in a forest – we are both loving biking!  

All in all, another great exploration weekend :)