PAY ATTENTION - HISTORY LESSON

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August 18th 2006

Published: August 18th 2006

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FeetUpKen

NAPIER

Art Deco

Good day to you all.

We left rainy Wellington - not without a Mr Bean-type episode whereby Ken managed to lock his rucksack in the hotel lobby with no way off getting back in and a taxi driver waiting to take us to the bus stop! Thank goodness for some poor guy in the apartment block who we rang from the outside entry phone who opened the door for us.

Here begineth the history lesson. Our first stop after Wellington was a very pretty town called Napier. This town suffered a devastating earthquake in 1931 which left most of the town in ruins. The town planners of the day decided to rebuilt the town in an Art Deco style of architecture. The results of which are absolutely eye-catching. Nearly all of the buildings in the main town centre have been built in this style.

We stayed here for three nights only one of which entailed having a few drinks and ending up entering a quiz in the local Irish bar. We managed to come last which being an Irish bar meant us winning a prize worth three or four drinks!

From Napier we travelled to another beautiful

NAPIER

Tea for Two

lakeside town: Lake Taupo. As in Napier we stayed in a local hostel, both of which were very homely. Our time in Tapau was spent wandering around the place, having a few drinks on Friday night: let's interpret 'few', after one or three in a couple of bars we fetched up in a pub which had Irn Bru!!! Enough said. Saturday was fairly quiet. however we did manage a trip to see some nearby volcanic pools and a lovely waterfall. Highlight of the weekend was cooking a full Sunday roast dinner in the hostel. Our fellow guests had never seen such a sight before. After the meal we watched Groundhog Day. After the meal we watched Groundhog Day. After the meal we watched Groundhog Day. If you have never seen the movie the last couple of sentences will have been wasted.

The Monday saw us moving on to Mount Maunganui. In some ways the most pleasant of the towns we have been to in New Zealand. Firstly the weather was very kind to us with bright sunshine every day. This allowed us to walk along the nice sandy beach to the bottom of the eponymous mountain. The town also

LAKE TAUPO

Ride a black swan

has the most wonderful natural hot spa baths. (Colin; they certainly beat the Norris hotsprings.) There is one pool in which you can swim, another in which you can just lie and relax and subject yourself to strong jets of hot water and finally a spa pool. We visited the pool two days running for about a couple of hours each time. I hate to say it but it was ABSOLUTELY BLOODY MARVELLOUS. The town lacked a range of hostelries so we had quite quiet evenings in the hostel, cooking, playing Yatsee and watching videos.

We are now in Auckland having said our farewells to The Magic Bus. Yesterday we went sight seeing by way of cheap city link bus which takes you all round the city for the pricely some of 50p. Unfortunately the driver dropped us off at the Quays, which happens to host a bar every other building! We found this fantastic bar called Cowboys which had the best ever video jukebox. We met and talked with some great people. Got bought drinks by strangers and even the Bar Manager before being the last to leave at about 2am. We still managed to find an Irish

LAKE TAUPO

Crater of the moon. Anyone for a hot mud bath?

bar still open which we again stayed in until IT closed at about 4am!

Today has been quiet! Not too quiet however. We have been up to the top of the Sky Tower which has fantastic 360degree views of the city. This afternoon we met up with Linda's cousin Pauline who she has never met before. We got on famously with her and her husband Mark ending up having a nice Thai meal and being invited out to their house for Sunday dinner.

Tomorrow sees us continuing our sporting quests with a visit to Eden Park to watch the All Blacks play Australia. If you are watching the game back in the UK (or in your local in Maroochydore, Alan) look out for Linda wearing her Welsh rugby strip.

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