Trundlers, coffee and earthquakes

Friday 13 March a bit of sunshine, some showers then overcast and cool 16C drove 273km

Open the curtains and it is pouring down, big puddles in the car park. Not too much that you can do to change the weather, but the logic says that we are heading north therefore it is going to be warmer. As luck would have it, the rain stopped as we left the hotel.

Adjusting to life in the southern hemisphere is interesting. The bath water really does go clockwise down the drain! Southwesterly winds are cold here, northeasterlies warmer. All weather systems are cyclonic (the opposite to UK) and the moon phases are back to front.

We also used a trundler for the first time the other day. I can see how a shopping trolley changes into a shopping cart in the USA, but a trundler, where did that come from? Another puzzle when being served coffee, what exactly is the difference between a 'flat white' and a 'latte'? Both have a shot of expresso topped up with steamed milk. The first is served in a standard cup and saucer whilst the latte is served in a glass. Latte costs on average 50 cents more than a flat white. I have developed a taste for flat white!

Masterton is a sprawling place and we drove through all of it to head out north up the SH2 toward Napier. The road passes through mainly farming countryside with a range of tall hills to the west and lower hills to the east. Most of the way, the railway line is close by. Many of the towns, Eketahuna, Pahiatua and Woodville seem lost in a time warp set about 40 years ago. The main street is lined with small businesses in buildings reminiscent of small town America, some even still have the boardwalks. I suppose it is not so odd considering the both places were settled widely at roughly the same period of time. One of the towns even had the railway running, unfenced, through the middle of the town.

Dannevirke, as its name perhaps suggests, was originally settled by Danes. Not far away there is a Norsewood. Dannevirke is a busy town and we stopped for coffee at the Hungry Belly bakery. In addition to bread and cakes, they sell home-made pies. Pies are big in NZ, everywhere serves them. Not wishing to eat a huge snack mid morning, we ate a sort of Chelsea or Belgium bun with raspberry icing on top. It tasted a lot better than that sounds.

After morning coffee, and back on the road, we pass through Waipukurau and Waipawa and all of a sudden we are in the Hawkes Bay area. After the rural areas we had been passing through Hastings seemed very large and busy. On the far side of town, suddenly we are right down by the sea following the road into Napier just a few miles away. Napier was a busy town in the 19th century but it all went wrong on the morning of February 3rd 1931 when the town was destroyed by an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale. More than 600 aftershocks followed in the next 2 weeks and 258 people lost their lives in the Hawkes Bay area. Whilst Hastings chose to rebuild itself in the Spanish Hacienda style, quite why I don't know, Napier rose from the ashes as one of the finest examples of Art Decor architecture in the world.

We drove into town along Marine Parade, passing several beautiful buildings, before driving past the modern container port and entering the Marina area. We look briefly at a hotel there before realising that it would be better to stay in town, preferably beach-front. The Pebble Beach motel fit the bill precisely and even had a spa bath in the bedroom - decadence! Our first task, to book a wine tour for the next day, we had a great recommendation from the hotel that matched the one in the 'Rough Guide'. That task complete, a stroll into town seemed to be a good idea. It was only 10 from the hotel along Marine Parade.

After lunch and briefly considering using the Ocean Spa on the sea-front, we headed back to the hotel, collected the car and drove out to look at the wetlands reserve where we saw Stilts and Black Swans. On the way back, we stopped to walk around the memorial gardens built in an old quarry. The quarry used to belong to the Prison across the road and had been worked by convicts. Past the gardens, the road climbs steeply to the lookout which gives sweeping view across the bay to Cape Kidnappers, named by James Cook after one of his crew was briefly kidnapped, which is inhabited by a huge number of gannets. The lookout is directly above the container port and watching massive fork-lift type trucks moving huge shipping containers around was strangely interesting. It reminded me of insects rushing around building a nest.

We ate dinner at 'The Hogs Breath' a restaurant that was themed as either outback Australia or perhaps West Texas. It was a bit like a sports bar and the menu reflected that, steaks and ribs mainly. The food was excellent and beer cold and wet!

The in-room spa bath seemed to be a good place to start training for tomorrows Wine Tour, a small glass of Chardonnay and a mountain of bubbles later, sleep beckoned!