In Hastings today

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This morning we made a bacon roll for breakfast - a two foot long baguette with a whole packet of bacon!
V. naughty but v. filling too. Before leaving I had a chat with the receptionist about how full their chalets get, and she said : really, really full at times. She said that during the past Easter weekend, they could have filled the centre twice over. It is particularly popular with school groups from abroad, even from Aberystwyth in Wales! Apparently it is cheaper for them to come here rather than to go to Europe.
Given that there were so many hotels, motels in town, to think that they at the periphery of the town were chock a block, is amazing.

We set off at 10am towards Taupo, becoming more and more entranced by the scenery. We are definitely getting a better show of autumnal leaves the further south we go. We had lots of sharp intakes of breath with certain sights of trees, some huge, some round some feathery, some spiky. It was awesome. Yes! I could live here! It was just stunning.

Arriving in Taupo, the next big centre for thermal springs, we decided to stop in the little town and have a coffee. It was just really charming, very old fashioned (ie harking back to the early part of the 20th century in parts, but also quite modern. Very clean, all appeared to be in order, but without the sort of Swiss regimentation which can be offputting. This had a slightly more rough and ready pragmatic air to it rather than obsessive.
Everyone seemed happy and healthy. I read that this was a centre for families visiting from all over N.Z. almost all year round. Yes, I could easily live here too. I'm suspecting that the difficulty I will have is not whether I should move here, but where I should live.
Lake Taupo is the largest in NZ being some 40km long and 30km wide. You can indulge in all sorts of sports here, not least being skydiving as it is the skydiving capital of Nz. you can fish for trout, go hiking (tramping they call it) horse riding, sailing, kayaking, canoeing, river rafting and so on. Its all totally outdoorsy and totally healthy. I wonder how much time people have for playstation here.

So after Taupo we did a long run through a quite windy road to Hastings. I spotted a business opportunity as I watched my fuel gauge dropping towards empty. There is absolutely no petrol station between Taupo and Hastings, a distance of some 134 km. There definitely is space for one in the middle of this run.
It was also beautiful and dotted with steam spouting forth in the distance, in some places it was really misty and we did not know if it was from the thermal springs or from the weather. We passed a thermonuclear (I think it is called that) plant where they generate energy from the steam, but did not stop to examine it.

We arrived in Hawke's bay just in time to fill the tank. This was advertised as wine country. We arrived at about 1.30pm and we had planned to stop in Napier, the first of two towns in the area, but having read about Craggy Range wine in the Telegraph last night being a 'new red icon' among wines, we decided to stop there and have a vineyard lunch. However, it was on the other side of Hastings and we wanted to get there before it was too late, so it meant we were unable to stop at Napier and see what is supposed to be the world's most Art Deco-y town.
We figured our way through to Hastings and out to the other side past many small wineries, and eventually to Craggy Range where we were told they would allow us to have lunch ie the kitchens would stay open for us.
It was an absolutely gorgeous setting with a craggy mountain range as a backdrop. We sat on a terrace in the lovely autumn sunshine and savoured only one glass of wine each (didn't dare do more). Nick had fish called drooper, I think and I had some NZ clams. I wouldn't recommend them, they were not as nice as I had imagined. We were also served by a Russian waitress who did not want to try pidgin Russian with us, evidently having left her homeland behind a long time ago.
We even watched a helicopter land on the gorgeous lawns behind the placid pond ringed with fir trees and watched three people go and get in (obviously showing off !)
After our mid afternoon lunch we slowly wended our way back to Hastings and checked in the Rotten Apple backpackers hostel ($80). It's quite lively but adequate and internet prices are good. room is okay and toilet bathroom down the hall.
I'm still trying to figure out whether we should spend one or two nights in Wellington.
bye for now

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