Napier

Yesterday was quite an interesting day! Again, awaking early, Mark & I cooked a family-style breakfast for everyone and we checked out of our lovely accomodations. We all met up in Waitangi Park to see a Photo Exhibit, which was really neat. There were about 200 photographs, mounted on frames suitable for the outdoors. It was set up so that you could walk through the park and view the photography at the same time. Each photo had a placard with information on the photo, and challenges to take better care of the earth. It was beautiful and quite interesting.

Afterwards, a few of us were hanging out in the skate park - and we had a bit of an "incident". Kate, Nadine and I had all been playing on the half-pipes... sliding down them, running up them, walking all over them. As Kate ran up the ramp for just "one last one", she slipped and hit her head on a concrete ledge. I started laughing because it was very funny, but when she looked at me, I realized it was decidedly NOT funny. She had blood gushing down her forehead, onto her shirt and onto the concrete. She didn't even know that she had hit her head, and began to go down the ramp again. I yelled at her, panicking over the sight of bright red blood against her blonde hair. Seriously, I was FREAKED OUT! She, however, was fine... saying that she just needed a band-aid. We took her to a hostel to get cleaned up (we were both bloody messes). Then, the girls hopped into the car for a trip to the hospital. The guys went about their day, visitng an old church and Parliament
building.





We, meanwhile, waited just a short period of time in the ER of a Wellington hospital before seeing a doctor. An hour later, Kate emerged from the ER with six stitches and a prescription for Naproxen.

We met up with the guys on the steps of "The Beehive", also known as their Parliament Building. We ate lunch at a place called the "Bench Box", and then hit the road to Napier. Napier is a small beach town on the coast.

The drive took a bit of time - probably five hours or so. We drove through the Rumatakas, a mountain range that was absolutely beautiful, stopped at two wineries along the way (Tirohana Estate & Margrain Vineyard),testing some incredible NZ wines, stopped for dinner downtown at a place called "The Governor's Inn" and finally, arrived at our destination - The Blue Water Hotel.

We were meant to have (2) suites, each with a king-size bed, and two singles and a kitchenette. Imagine our surprise when we were told that they "gave our rooms away" due to our late arrival! The night-receptionist suggested that they could give us a boat in place of our suite. The only problem was that it slept six, so she would also give us a room that slept a few more. We were disappointed to say the least, as we were absolutely exhausted. Dave wisely suggested that we not take the boat until we saw it. Imagine our surprise when the "boat" turned out to be a sixty-foot yacht! Apparently, the owner has a yacht that is available for overflow rooms when he is not using it. The decison was quite an easy one to make, and we took both the room and the YACHT for the night.

Nadine, Dave, Josh & I opted for the yacht accomodations. Mark, KT and Kate opted for the standard room accomodations. Nadine, Josh, Dave and I couldn't believe our good fortune - we were sitting on a yacht in a harbor of the Pacific Ocean in NZ! I found the whole thing to be incredibly humorous, and couldn't stop giggling. IT WAS AWESOME to sleep in a yacht for the evening. Who knew that our lives were so glamorous.

This morning, we awoke later than we have been. We packed our beach bags and headed downtown to breakfast in Napier. Then, we hit the road to a beach that Nadine had picked off the map. It was a scenic drive, which was completely unexpected. On one side of the road, we had the coastline. On the other side, we had rolling plains and hills full of lush green and dotted with deer, sheep and cows. BREATH-TAKING. (I know I keep saying that, but it really is true!)

We ended up at Whakapatiki Beach, which was quite isolated, very private and very beautiful. We spent the afternoon together - Kate & I walking the shoreline, Kristin, Nadine and Josh "laying out", Dave & Mark sneaking off to climb some bluffs and take some photos of the beach, and the landscape.


Tonight, we went to dinner at Acqua Seafood. We all ordered some interesting fares. Most notably - Kate got a crock of sea creatures smothered in garlic & butter. Josh got a full baby snapper, served WHOLE on his plate - eyes, teeth, tongue and all. Kristin and I split some risotto, which to my dismay, was served with a WHOLE scampi. I couldn't bear to touch the thing, and opted not to eat the crazy fish thing. I filled up on the risotto.

Now, we are at the "email espresso" bar, and I think the group is ready to hit the road for home (read: yacht). Tomorrow, we'll journey to another beach town called Tauranga which is about a four and a half hour drive. This is a new change to the itinerary - we hadn't previously planned a trip out there, but I'm sure it will be GREAT! Tauranga is another small beach town, afoot a mountain called Mount Maunganui. There are also rumors of more "hot pools". Can't wait!

Hope to log in again soon! We love you all.


~kendra