1st Week - Days 4 - 6 - Napier (Hawke's Bay)

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Apologies once again for the delayed posting, everything has been extremely busy and have had little time on the internet other than uploading photos to facebook etc.

Anyway, our first week continued on Day 4 with a drive to Napier in Hawkes Bay on the eastern coast of the North Island. By the time we had checked out of Base Backpackers in Auckland and loaded the car, it was a 5 hour drive past Lake Taupo where will be staying later, before reaching Napier. Napier is an Art Deco style town which was re-built in this style following a massive earthquake in 1931. Napier was to host 2 RWC games in the coming weeks and therefore they had streets allocated to each of the nations to play there. There was the French Quarter, Canadian Quarter and Japanese Quarter, with each and every shop displaying flags and slogans of support to their allocated nation.

We were immediately realising however that as we were to miss the games, and that there were few bars or pubs to choose from that this was going to be a relatively quiet few days. Nevertheless, we started off by walking along the coastline looking for a pub or cafe to have a late lunch overlooking the water. After walking for over a kilometer and only finding more and more holiday rental apartments, we turned back and cut our losses, having lunch at Hogs Breath Cafe which was rubbish. We then made our way to an Irish bar in town called The Rose which had been allocated to support Canada. We again made our way through a large number of beers and played pool all afternoon / evening before having a relatively early night, going to bed at midnight so as not to destroy ourselves for golf the next day.

The next day (day 5) we were all excited for a big game of golf at Cape Kidnappers. The course is ranked 39th in the world and at 450 New Zealand Pesos a roung, it better be good. The course itself was amazing with some spectacular holes along cliff-tops jutting out into the ocean like fingers. The views and tough layout of the course made for some great photo opportunities. Unfortunately the wind picked up a bit towards the end, but it was still an amazing course with amazing views, and yours truly taking out the win with 2 birdies, and a solid performance overall. That night, we returned to the Rose Irish pub for dinner and drinks before having a night in playing cards over beers and scotch, taking advantage of being in one of the only backpackers we would be staying at for the whole trip which allowed alcohol on premises. We finally finished up cards at about 3am (I think) and went to bed.

Day 6 was a relatively quiet day for myself, with the other 3 heading off on a guided Wine Tour of Hawke's Bay, I decided to use the spare time to get some chores done including washing, replying to some work e-mails (believe it or not), and a quick bit of shopping which included a custom made trophy for the worst golfer of the trip. When the others returned me made our way to another Irish bar called the Brazen Head pub, where we had drinks and dinner before Karaoke started. It didn't look like it was going to be too big a night until at least two dozen locals made their way in and started belting out tunes. I did my usual Louis Armstrong - What a Wonderful World to much applause... and called it a night approximately an hour or two later, getting to bed at about midnight.

We are heading back to Auckland tomorrow for the second weekend of Rugby. Stay tuned for more.

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