New Zealand Part 12 - Napier

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Napier - Bloody sand flies!!!!

We drove back south down the same route we had come along heading for Taupo, stopping just out side the town to view the Huka falls. Not as spectacular as Niagara but very noisy with a hell of a lot of water rushing past which was a lovely aqua marine colour.

The drive from Taupo to our DOC site was a long and winding road (don’t start singing, Nath does and he’s no x-factor finalist) with no petrol stops on it at all.( luckily we’d filled up back in Taupo) and headed in the late afternoon sun to the DOC site I had only a road name for. On our travels down from Rotorua we had been “followed” by another camper that seemed to be going the same way as us, not really surprising but still it was nice to wave between us as we drove and felt like we had some travelling companions . Eventually we found the tiny road I had instructions for and found the DOC site by the river. They had said this was a basic camp so it was free and only had a toilet, (which you only use if you really have to!!) and a river you could drink from….yeah right the water was brown!!!

We picked the firmest spot as it looked like it had flooded recently and set up camp for the night. There wasn’t a soul around, it was just us and the sunshine, and it was soo lovely. We had our dinner and I went to wash the plates off in the stream like a proper camper, only to get bitten by a bloody sand fly. I hate these things they’ve eaten me alive before, always going for my ankles which then swell up like a fat person and I can’t walk!! But I hadn’t sprayed my legs so guess I had been asking for it really. That night we were joined by one other camper in his car and a little one man tent. He parked quite a way from us and we didn’t go and say hi as we thought he could be a right weirdo!!. That night it was a wonderful sleep with no noise and pitch black. The stars would have been cool too but we were both so tired we weren’t awake long enough to enjoy them. The only off putting thing about that night was the hairy legs we found poking out of the window edging where I sleep!!! We tired to get the monster to come out but he hid even more, so all we could do (so I would actually sleep), was spray the hole with bug spray so he wouldn’t come out - luckily it seemed to work.

Next morning was so cool, waking up to the sounds of birds oh and those dam cucaracha bugs or whatever they’re called hissing away (these things are everywhere in NZ in the summer and they don’t stop all day, great if you have tinnitus!!). My foot had done its usual fat person impression and developed into a kankle over night (hate sand flies) so after scratching all the skin off I decided to stop at the bone and put some antihistamine on!!

We were up and out quite quickly, after a wash at the sink with some boiled water and a half wet flannel, and headed for our powered site at Napier so we could have a proper wash. Luckily it was a lovely sunny day again so we drove with the window down to reduce the smell!. In my attempt (failed as usual) to try and keep everything as cheap as possible we were heading to Hastings which is a short drive from Napier and the campsites are much cheaper. However one of the other weird kiwi habits is to only label roads and places of interest form one direction, and as most people drive up from Christchurch nothing was labelled coming from our northerly direction. In the end the money we were gonna save on this camp site was slowly being spent in petrol trying to find it, so smelly and tired we gave up and I booked a site in town at Napier. Typically after giving my name and an arrival time at this new site, on our drive to it, we passed the sign for the original place, oh well plans of mice and Mandy!

We got ourselves settled in to the camp site, the lady working the desk there had kindly pointed out the toilets and showers and that they needed a token - don’t know if she was hinting or not?? And how lovely it was to have a shower. I also thoroughly enjoyed the constant music from some local radio that was pumped into the toilet block 24 hours a day, so in the end spent longer than usual in the shower singing along. Not sure how well we’re gonna do with this freedom camping lark, not showering for one morning was pretty gross, I’m hoping we’ll get better so we can camp out nearly two nights in a row to save money (dependant on whether the battery for the fridge can last!). With the usual preparations and lunch over we headed into town. I had decided that I was gonna have to go bare feet as none of my shoes would now fit my fat feet. Luckily over here I didn’t stick out, if anything it just made me look like one of the locals, you may remember us saying lots of people walk around bare feet especially kids! So we parked for free (where a local woman who pulled up beside us gave us a free loaf of uncut bread as she had spare!!) and headed in on a glorious sunny afternoon. This visit was really more for me, as I love the art deco period and was looking forward to seeing all the buildings etc. I think Nath was a little embarrassed by my constant taking (rubbish) photos of random buildings, and although bared footed now looking completely like a tourist. We walked along the beach front, me hopping around as the hot tarmac was burning my feet. We then spent the next few hours wandering the shops, one was a possum shop where everything was made of some part of the possum, they really hate the little guys. So we could have sent you all some beautiful dead animal garments, lucky for you we were as disgusted as you probably are.

I then spent ages in some art deco antique stores so Nath got bored and went to move the car to another free spot (yippee again) and then we went to have a coffee to watch the world go by in the sunshine. It was all lovely apart form my foot still itching like mad. We found a coffee shop that was offering free wifi so Nath headed back to the van that was parked 5 mins away. Once back I couldn’t get it to turn on and realised that it had probably run out of battery. Thoroughly peeved now I offered to walk back and get the cable to charge it up but on returning back Nath was already surfing away as I just hadn’t waited long enough for the screen to kick in it would seem - doh a five minute walk with fat feet for no reason!!! So after abusing this free internet for a couple of hours I headed back to the van ahead of Nath as my foot had REALLY swollen up now from sitting in one of those high stools and the blood had rushed to the end of my toes I guess? As we had arrived late in town and taken our time just looking around most of the attractions were closing, not that we really wanted to do any o them, they would be more “time filling” options, which we are trying to avoid as the cost adds up. We did however stop off at the local rose garden which was full of lots of different types of roses and very nice to hobble round and look at, but the best thing was the “scented garden for the blind”. I thought this was a lovely idea they had thought of everything, cobbled pathways which are easy to follow and wooden frames around all the plants so you can lean in to smell them, however none of this is helpful when the bloody thing was labelled with a plaque without brail!!! I mean how fricking stupid is that, everyone can read it and say what a lovely idea how thoughtful. But the people that it is meant for wont know its bloody there…..so typical of NZ so far I must say. Anyway we drove out of town via some scenic view point and headed back to camp for dinner.

One thing we both agreed on with Napier is that for some reasons we both really loved it. Something about the atmosphere or location we cant put our fingers on. So far from what we have seen of the north island if we were to settle anywhere this would be a good contender - shame there isn’t really any work here and we had only experienced the town center and on a sunny day which always helps. Anyway the town had been as it promised; an art deco dream and I had taken some vaguely good shots I think. It holds an art deco themed weekend in Feb, where everyone gets dressed up in period costume. Something I would really have liked to have done, but our timetable wouldn’t have allowed it - maybe next time 😊 We drove home via the wharf area which was just like Cardiff (possibly why we liked it so much?) and settled in for the night with fish and chips- well we are right by the coast so this sort of location demands it really!!

And that was it, not really much time to spend in Napier, the wineries were one of the only things we may have done if we’d had time. Driving past all the bottle labels we recognised from drinking back home was weird, but buying a bottle here would have cost us double the price so we figured we didn’t care that much and Nath would stick with his Tui beers.…..Wellington here we come

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Photos

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Us at Huka Falls

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Funnily enough you're not allowed to water raft here

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Wow thats a lot of water!!

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our first DOC site

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Spot Elton....

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Im not sure if the plates came out more dirty!!!

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Morning Mandy, Morning Elton

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Central gardens in Napier

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Looking like a local - no shoes

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Looks just like Miami

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Lots more of these views to come i'm afraid

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The reason for all the art deco