Blogs from Napier, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

We hadn't needed a car while in Wellington but we were about to commence our travels around North Island so a car was our chosen form of transport once again. We'd arranged this in advance, using the Ace car rental company who had done us so proud in South Island both in terms of service and vehicle so we hoped for the same standard from the North Island Wellington office. Well, dream on ..... We had arranged to be collected from our hotel by Ace but, two phone calls later and still no show, we hopped into a taxi instead. When we arrived at the offices we found a lovely young girl who had been in the job all of three weeks trying to manage the telephone, the hotel pick-ups, the customers and cars all on ... read more

Hi everyone, back on the road again after a rather rowdy night. Our room in Wellington was above a pub, remember I said about the warning signs at reception ? Well they weren't wrong ! They had a live band in the pub, well I thought they were playing in our room !!! Right next to our bed !! Stu said he didn't get a wink of sleep, I must admit I was woken to the drums being bashed, but had ear plugs in and drifted off again, so I slept through it really, Stu said 'I gave you those earplugs from the plane kit' Oh, so he did !!!! And they worked too !!! So in the morning, early, Stu got up grumpy !! and went off to get the hired car, came back with ... read more

We used Waitangi weekend in Napier, a perfect escape from the Auckland rain. We cycled 50km on Saturday to hit a number of vineyards - beyond the wine the highlight would have been the BMX pump track that we had a play on. Sunday was checking out a local Sunday market and touring a bit more around Napier's art deco buildings.... read more

Maandag 21 April 2014: Men onderbuur in de jeugdherberg heeft deze nacht regelmatig liggen woelen. Zodanig dat ik dat de boel ging in storten maar niet dus. Bij de receptie van de jeugdherberg krijg ik nog een kaartje mee van de Hutt Vallei. Ik doe men inkopen om dan nog naar de toeristische dienst te gaan horen hoe ik het centrum uit geraak. Ik heb een kaartje met een route op ma dat zou maar in 1 richting zijn. De kerel daar is niet zo goed op de hoogte en stuurt me de Highway op. Hmmm, niet wat ik in gedachten had. Ik krijg nog wel een hoop foldertjes mee maar niet zo'n praktische. Uiteindelijk besluit ik op de trein naar Petone te nemen. Dan zit ik een pak dichter bij de fietsroute die langs de ... read more

NAPIER, NZ FROM THE M/S OOSTERDAM Napier is on the east coast of the North Island and has some beautiful beaches, but I will remember it as a stop which far exceeded my expectations as a fun destination. I didn’t get there, but the city with the longest name, Taumatawhakatanghihangako-au-auotamteaturipukakapikimaungahoronuku-pokaiwhenuakitanatahu, really stressed my spell checker. Say that fast a couple of times! Captain Cook discovered Hawke’s Bay in 1769 while charting the New Zealand shore. Whalers established an outpost here in the 1830’s and a city was established in the mid 19th century. The city was hit by a disastrous earthquake, 7.9 on the Richter scale, on February 3, 1931 causing widespread destruction and killing more than 250 people. The rebuilding effort was undertaken during the Great Depression and the decision to use the clean and ... read more