We headed into the city and made our to-do list. First stop was the NZ government, we went on a tour of the parliament building and were shown around by a very outspoken American.
After some pretty cool museums we headed to the National reserve bank of NZ - we popped in here as it was on the free list. Was interesting to find out more about currency/money in general and I got a free bag of (shredded) NZ dollars!
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| Very modern NZ Parliament - the Beehive |
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| N=non-tradable inflation don't y'know :) We filled our heads with figures at the reserve bank |
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| Look at this museum exhibit, looks familiar? |
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| Church made solely of wood |
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| From the inside, still a lot of wood |
Later in the afternoon we headed to the Botanical gardens for a view over the city- a great way to finish off our whistle stop tour of Wellington we climbed to the top to look down :)
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| Welcome to Wellington |
Once we'd walked for as long and as far as we could we made a beeline for Cuba street and it's food market. Bought a stall snack and had a look around before finding out that Scotland had chosen to stay part of the UK, hurrah! Once we knew that we capitalised on the rise in the value of the £ and withdrew some cash :)
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| Cuba street - just in case you'd not realised |
We stayed outside of the city in a caravan park and got up early the next day for our next NZ Parkrun! This time Lower Hutt Parkrun and the heavens were open all morning but stopped just in time for the run :) Andy got a PB and I plodded home in a more respectable time than I did in Dunedin. We popped to the cafe for a post-run coffee and ran back to the car in the rain!
That morning we headed back on the rd to Napier- the Art Deco city. We drove out of the rain towards the Napier sunshine :)
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| This was taken from inside the car, shall we really get out and run? |
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| Oh! Ok then. Andy's quickest time is still held by this course |
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| Finally! The infamous 'giant jumping pillow' |
We stayed the night outside the city and went to a farmers market first thing the next day. Set in the grounds of a race track there was a petting zoo, plenty of food and great breakfast fare :) Back into Napier and we explored the 'Art Deco Capital', so called after an earthquake flattened the city in the 1930's. Rebuilt completely in Art Deco style the town has retained it's fabulous style to this day.
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| Move over Wellington rain, hello Napier sun |
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| Obligatory farmers market snacks |
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| Huumm.. Which one shall I try first? |
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| Ooh, that's the one, sweet chilli jiz... |
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| Oh, along with the petting zoo along came a dinosaur- of course |
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| Andy vs sea |
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| Napier stage (the stage is not wonky, it's my photo taking) |
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| Said as it is, Napier street art |
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| More art |
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| Napier seafront |
We drove out of the city to another winery. This time we visited crab farm winery, a much smaller affair compared to the Brancott Estate in Blenheim. Andy had a tasting for one as we were the only people wanting to try the wines, although the place itself was hugely busy as it had a very popular restaurant attached.
Once Andy had sampled enough wine we got back on the road to Lake Taupo. A really popular place with visitors due to it's outdoor and adrenaline fuelled activities. We stayed in a free campsite not too far from one of the main attractions- Huka Falls.
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| Tasting for one, why not?! |
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| Where to start? |
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| Still going strong! |
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| Bye bye Crab Farm and Napier |
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| Hello Taupo :) |
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| Huka Falls glance, that's as close as I get |
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| Andy on dinner duty, cooking a NZ delicacy - mushrooms! |
First order of the day (for Andy) was to go on the jet boat which zooms up and down the river to Huka Falls. Being a little travel sensitive on boats I decided against what was essentially a vomit comet but was able to take some good photos!
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| Here they come! |
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| Cool to watch and Andy assures me it was even better onboard... |
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| That's my boy, bottom left above the logo, clinging on! |
Next stop was the Huka dam which opens it's gates and lets the water out daily.
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| Closed... |
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| Now it's open |
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| Filling up slightly |
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| And in just a few minutes the water... |
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| completely takes over! |
That afternoon we hired some bicycles from town and cycled out to the Craters of the Moon bike track. There are a series of bike tracks for all abilities and you choose which one you want to do and off you go! It was very quiet with only us and 1 other person there so we made the most of having free reign of the park. Once we'd cycled for several hours it was time for sunset over Lake Taupo and back to the campsite for a well deserved dinner.
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| On your marks, get set |
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| GO! |
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| Enforced pit stop as the trees on the bike track had fallen over in the wind so we had to climb over them |
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| Mountain bike selfie |
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| Look at me go! I was going too fast for Andy to capture my 360 spin |
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| Fueling the athlete |
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| For the journey back to camp |
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| Lake Taupo at sunset |
Next morning we visited the Craters of the Moon geothermal park. This place has a walkway over the top of an active geothermal field so you can feel and see the steam coming out of the earth! Pretty cool, albeit quite a short stroll over the area. With our appetites wet for smelly, steaming volcanic activity we set off for another popular stop- Lake Rotorua.
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| Geothermal activity in action |
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| Bubbling hot mud pools, not the type for us to bathe in! |
