We travelled through some beautiful country side and pretty towns. We have loved the beautiful English type trees which enhance these areas. We arrived in Napier and after a bit of driving around, found the information centre to get some ideas of what to do. A cruise ship was in and people everywhere so we were happy to leave Napier and arrive at our accommodation at Havelock North. Once again we had a beautifully appointed new house with all amenities - even a spa!
We had glorious views from the nearby lookout - a narrow windy road which wasn’t enjoyed by Anne at all! We loved Napier & learned at the museum about the earthquake which hit in 1931 - which changed Napier forever. The sea dropped away and most of the buildings were ruined. However, in a remarkably short time, the city was rebuilt using the Navy and out of work tradesmen during the depression. It was rebuilt in art deco style and today they work hard to maintain this iconic architecture.
The beach here is black sand but the sea front is very pretty with flower displays.
We had a lovely winery lunch in the Esk valley and here we learned about last year’s cyclone Gabrielle, which decimated and flooded the valley. The winery has just reopened and we saw numerous ruined houses along the way. The area has been rezoned and those flooded houses cannout be rebuilt., so it’s sad that the people have to relocate once compensation comes in. We also deduced that the piles of dirt we saw, was actually silt!
The winery has done remarkably well to operate after less than a year.
From our Havelock North place, we travelled over mountains once again to Taupo and Rotarau. We had planned some activities such as hot springs, waterfall walk and white water rafting watching, but ended up doing none of those as the clouds gathered and we struck rain! So we had a coffee at Taupo and looked around the lake area - which was very busy.
It’s also unusual so see an aeroplane at McDonalds! The rain became steady at Rotarua so we drove around the Government gardens and saw the lake - which is bigger than we remembered.
By chance we found this gorgeous old boutique hotel where we enjoyed a beautiful lunch in quite stunning surroundings.
From here it was a short drive to Tauranga, which we found out is the 5th largest NZ town - and boy oh boy, was it busy! We tried unsuccessfully to find the information centre and then got caught up in traffic! We were bumper to bumper for about 90mins - the worst traffic we've ever witnessed! It was pleasing to see that there was no road rage or angry drivers - maybe they are used to it! So it was with huge relief that we reached our destination - (albeit later than anticipated) and really enjoyed a beer and wine to relax. We’re here at Bowertown for 2 nights, then the holiday is sadly over. I’ll probably do a wind up blog before we leave - until then, love from Anne, Greg,Marg & Darryl ❌❌❌❌
No comments:
Post a Comment