March 12, 13, 14, 2011

Beautiful warm, sunny days this weekend.  New Plymouth was nice, and a spectacular volcano hovering over the entire area.  We ached from the hike from the 4.5 hour hike on the volcano. 

We drove down from New Plymouth to Paraparaumu, about a half hour north of Wellington.  It is a beautiful coastal village, with an island off the coast.  Took some nice sunset shots.  We went into Wellington on Sunday, took a ride up the cable car and walked around in the downtown core.  Did the tourist walk, it was in the book once I realized "WE DID IT"

Imagine Vancouver's False Creek, but bigger and a much smaller city as the backdrop. 

The roads around NZ are quite well maintained, a bit twisty and they are now starting to twin or add passing lanes.  Until this morning....

Headed out to drive from Paraparaumu and a nice side road to Upper Hutt, to get to Napier.  Well, it is a hellish, twisty, winding, tight corners, a roller coaster of a ride.  I thought the Akaroa Peninsula road on the South Island was bad, this was worse, and scary...We got into Upper Hutt, and then started to drive another pass, Unbelievable.  Thinking we had a 3 hour drive to Napier turned into almost 6. 

The wine country is like the Okanagan, but BIGGER and the wines are delicious.

Got into Napier, and walked around the beach, and admired the Art Deco buildings knowing it was all built after the 7.8 earthquake in 1931...hmmm 70 years ago...and thinking, is it going to happen here again???? and when??

Staying here a couple of nights before we head up to Rotorua, (more volcanoes)...