New Dawn Fades*

23 February 2010
Last night over dinner we realised two things:
1. We are now over halfway through our r-t-w trip
2. When every day is like Sunday (“what day is it?”) we forgot to celebrate our 25th Anniversary of being together, so we turned last night’s dinner into our celebration meal
Got up early-ish this morning to go for our long walk only to discover that the whole of Tongariro was under a thick blanket of fog and to make matters worse Chris has developed an awful cold. Undeterred we went down to breakfast in the hope that by the time we had eaten the fog would have lifted. At breakfast on the table next to us was one of those Americans that gives the whole population a bad name – sounded like he was from Texas if our memories of ‘Dallas’ are correct – and he talked in a very loud drawl that everyone in the restaurant couldn’t help but hear, and he talked and he talked – can’t understand why he was so obese as he never seemed to pause long enough to eat anything...
The fog didn’t lift nor did Chris’s cold so we decided to move on. After about 5km of driving we came to a halt as the road ahead was blocked by about 500 sheep being herded to pastures new, we couldn’t help but laugh watching them bounce up and down as the dogs kept them moving (slowly) along to their destination.

Back on the move again and by the time we reached Taupo the fog had lifted and the sun was beginning to shine. Coffee and a little shopping later (two new T shirts for Chris) we got back on the road with the intention of reaching Napier earlier than planned.
Our destination in Napier is another B&B booked over the internet; this time it is a vegetarian B&B called The Green House on the Hill and it wasn’t until we were trying to locate it on the map that we realised its address – 18 Milton Road. How spooky is that?
Arrived in Napier in time for a late lunch and immediately liked the town. It’s on the coast, has a wonderful Mediterranean climate (of course the sun is shining), has a completely Art Deco centre, re-built after the original town was completely destroyed by a massive earthquake in 1931, and, of course, it’s slap bang in the middle of Hawke’s Bay wine region.
Along the seafront it has a boulevard called Marine Parade, which would be at home in any British seaside town. It even has a pebbly beach and floral gardens. The Art Deco Society (set up to preserve the buildings) produce a self guided walking tour and we did part of the walk in the afternoon and will complete it tomorrow. Talk about British seaside town in the 50s, all the shops and cafes close at about 5pm even Starbucks had closed by 6!
Dinner in a very good Turkish restaurant (thanks David and Emma) where we were able to bring our own wine with no corkage charge.