Road Trip - Napier

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A three day weekend calls for a road trip to Napier. Three-quarters of the team that rolled to the south island last year made the trek this time (Marcos, Sarah and me). It was a seven hour drive with a few stops along the way, including a café well outside the suburbs of Auckland that served water with coffee flavoring for lattés, a hydro power dam and swing bridge, the driving range on Lake Taupo (floating barge with chance to win $5000 for holes in one), a waterfall and finally Napier.

We pulled into Napier around 4pm Saturday afternoon. We hit the Opossum shop and museum, checked out the world famous art deco architecture in town and prepared to go out and watch the rugby equivalent of the super bowl - the New Zealand team handily beat the Aussie team… yeah. We partied with the locals into the wee hours of Sunday morning - how we got back to our motel none of us know (I did find a credit card receipt for a cab company in my jeans pocket that showed my card was swiped at 3:40am) - I thought for sure we were going to try to commandeer a pleasure craft and sail it back to Auckland.

Sunday morning was an earlier than desired start (10am) bike tour of the region specifically vineyards, a chocolate factory and a brewer. We must have been the most pathetic looking cyclists slowly making our way from one stop to the next - nearly eating and drinking at each stop - a truly leisurely Sunday. We completed the 37 km trek by 5:30pm… the team was sore and we went back to our room to watch TV. At about 9pm we felt hungry enough to make our way out into the night to seek out food - everything was shuttered for the Sunday evening holiday with the exception of the Loaded Hog - yes Bill, that place that the B&B host recommended - to cold to sit on the patio this time so we stayed in.

Monday morning was a sleep in until 10am, check out of the room, walk the beach, brunch in a deco café, visit a few antique shops and accost Napier’s famous sculpture. The drive back was a detour up to Rotorua with the intention of riding the luge but nixed that for a long drawn out lunch and a tour of the town’s geothermal pools “stay on the trail - geothermal activity could open up the ground below you.” Then it was on the road with a low fuel tank and the challenge to see if we could make it to the next petrol station past Thames without fueling up…. ala Seinfeld (below). Yes, we did make it - barely…. Ready for the next road trip, which just so happens to be a few weekends from now when we go for our advanced diving certification (30m = 90 feet), which will include night diving and wreck diving.

(The needle is now below "E". Rick is looking at it)
RICK: Is it just the angle I’m looking from?
KRAMER: No, Sir. We are down there.
RICK: Oh, this is amazing! Oh, I’ve never felt so alive!
KRAMER: Yeah, well, alright. I’m satisfied. We better get some gas.
RICK: What? Well, we can’t stop now.
KRAMER: What do you mean?
RICK: We have to keep going - all the way back to the dealership. That was the plan.
KRAMER: There was no plan.
RICK: Well, let’s make it the plan! Let’s just.. go for it! Like Thelma and Louise.
KRAMER: What, they drove to a dealership?
RICK: No, they drove off a cliff.
(Kramer eyes Rick, frightened)
KRAMER: You are one sick mama.. I like it.
RICK: Mr. Kramer, the road!
(Kramer swerves around again)
KRAMER: Yup! Yup!
(Kramer pulls the car into a gas station and gets out)
KRAMER: Cars can go on empty, but not us humans, huh, fella? I’ll get us a couple of Twix bars.
RICK: No, no coconut for me.
KRAMER: Alright, I’ll get ya a Mounds bar. Keep the engine running.
(Rick sits back in the car a second, then hurriedly jumps out and reaches for the gas pump. Kramer pops up from behind the pump and scares him)
RICK: Ahh!
KRAMER: No, man! Not the gas!
RICK: But it needs it, Kramer! It needs it bad!
KRAMER: Do you think that this’ll make you happy? ‘Cause it won’t!
RICK: (Walking away) Ah, you can just go on without me.
(Kramer grabs him by the collar)
KRAMER: Listen to me. When that car rolls into that dealership, and that tank is bone dry, I want you to be there with me when everyone says, "Kramer and that
other guy, oh, they went further to the left of the slash than anyone ever dreamed!"
(The car makes puttering noises)
RICK: Maybe we better get moving.
KRAMER: It’s good to have you back, Stan.
(Both hop into the car)
RICK: It’s Rick, by the way.
KRAMER: No time!
Rick and Kramer are driving back to the dealership)
RICK: (Seeing the turn-off up ahead) There’s the dealer!
KRAMER: Hey!
RICK: We did! We pulled it off! I can’t believe it! Where’s the needle?
KRAMER: Oh, it broke off, baby! Woo, hoo, hoo!
RICK: Oh, Mr. Kramer, I gotta thank you. I - I learned a lot. Things are gonna be different for me now.
KRAMER: Well, that’s a weird thing to say..
RICK: I wonder how much longer we could have lasted.
KRAMER: Yeah, yeah. I wonder.. hmm.
(They both eye each other, then Kramer slams on the gas, attempting to go even longer. They both cheer and scream out)
Scene cuts to Kramer and Rick. Still yelling, they slowly come to a stop)
KRAMER: Whew! Well, I think we stopped.
RICK: You - you can probably let go of my hand now.
KRAMER: Oh, yeah. (Getting out of the car) Well, I’ll think about it..
RICK: Do you have my card?

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Photos

On the Road to Napier - Rickety Swing Bridge in Arapuni
Bill, this bridge is just below the dam that we stopped at on the way to the glow worm caves

Huka Falls (Looking up from bridge)
Juka Falls just outside of Taupo

Finally got the Canadian to bear arms.
Hunting Opossum at Napier's Opossum World - a museum for opossums, the most vilified creature in NZ.

Mission Estate Winery - oldest in NZ
The bike ride up the hill to get here almost killed me. I was sweating bullets that had a very slight scent of wine - yet I'd not even done any sampling yet.

Mission Estate Winery - Restaurant
Those dinning here were most assuredly not impressed with our biking attire, oh well.

Tasting at Mission Estate
As seen thru my eyes. It was difficult even tasting the wine let alone consuming any with the previous night's still our systems.

The Three Musketeers at the End of the 37 km bike ride - wine tour.
We nearly got stranded on the road in the dark. Earlier in the day we broke the top gear on the bike and tried to do a repair using the bike seat, eventually the two engineer's figured out that there was an easier way, keep the chain in a lower gear, of course this meant a more strenuous ride... but as you can see we pulled in just as the sun was setting.

The tandem bike from hell.
who's ever heard of a tandem mountain bike? This thing weighed a ton, and per the prior photo was stuck in one gear. When we checked the bike out from the shop keeper he had us do a test drive for him - marcos reported that as S and I took the bike for a quick ride up the block the shop owner said "that's the slowest i've ever seen anyone ride a tandem bike without tipping over" - we never tipped once.

Comments

[Jim Lesniak]

A fun outing.
I certainly enjoyed reading this blog, and would have loved to been along on this trip and bike ride. My problem would have been the morning after the night before! What a tough ride it would have been for me on Sunday. Jim