Escaping the rain southwards!!

Well the rain seemed to be following us as we headed south. First stop after Rotorua was Lake Taupo and any chance of a good photo of the lake in all its glory was lost by the mists!!! An interesting place nonetheless, built on a grid system, so even Jan managed to navigate without disaster!!!

The A1 Grand Prix will be here shortly, so preparations were in full swing with chequered flags everywhere. A shame we were moving on and will miss it.

Because of the rain we swiftly moved on to Napier and were fortunate in some ways to get there!!! Bob generally leaves it to the last minute to fill up with petrol (in fact until we are travelling on fresh air usually!!!), but for some reason he decided to turn back to a petrol station we had just passed, even though there was still a quarter of a tank of petrol. Well, it was a good job he did. We travelled on to Napier (some 140km) and did not see another petrol station. As we travelled on we kept saying how lucky we were (no surprise there for those of you who know Bob!!!) as we would have been stranded in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains, pine forests and not a lot else!!!

Napier was lovely, probably partly due to the fact that it didn't rain and we had some patchy sunshine for a while. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and rebuilt in the art deco style during the 1930's and was considered to be one of the most modern cities in the world at that time. It has definitely kept its charm and has not been overdeveloped for the tourist industry.

We spent a lovely evening round on the harbourside where old warehouses have been converted to bars and restaurants.

After Napier we moved further south to Palmerston North (200km), and spent a pleasant afternoon firstly at the Rugby Museum which covered world rugby history with lots of interesting memorabilia and then on to the Victoria Esplanade. This is a lovely area along the banks of the Manamatu River which housed a wonderful rose garden, bird sanctuary, beautiful formal gardens and a steam train. It was a very restful afternoon for us having travelled so far in quite a short space of time and again the weather was kind to us.

We have now completed our travels south down the North Island and have arrived in Wellington. We had a quick tour round to get our bearings as we will be returning to Wellington for a longer stay on our way back north. So tomorrow morning we will be on the ferry for the 3.5 hour trip to the South Island (Picton) and then on for a few days in Nelson.