Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Napier without a hat

Boy, was it hot.

It was so hot that I truly regretted forgetting to pack our sunhats.

It was so hot that our walks along Marine Parade only lasted about half an hour before we had to head back to our fan-cooled motel unit.

It was so hot that I decided to forgo the mini-golf, the only game I can beat the boy at.

Of course, now that we're back in the relative coolness of home, I miss the hot sun.

When we did get out though, we had a great time. We visited the National Aquarium to see all the fishies, watched performing sea mammals at Marineland and very nearly went swimming with the dolphins (they were booked out). We gave the Ocean Spa a miss because I'm not allowed to soak in hot water, otherwise it would've been a must-do.

It turned out that the boy was right about the affect of the One Day Cricket International - our first night was in a tiny, stuffy room in a bed 'n' breakfast (though it run by a lovely Dutch woman with cute kids and a white floppy-eared rabbit; it kinda made up for it), all that was available. But our next two nights were in a spacious beachfront motel unit just minutes from all the main attractions.

There were interesting sights on the way there and back, too. Like the windfarm at Woodville ("the windfarm capital of New Zealand), with the hynotic view of giant windmills twirling about on the ridge. And the fact that the welcome sign outside Dannevirke has a picture of a Viking on it. Did we have Vikings in New Zealand?

I just love being a tourist.

2 comments:

flying kiwi said...

Glad you enjoyed Napier. About the vikings: Dannevirke was settled by Danes and Norsewood by Norwegians, so yes, there were vikings. Or at least ancestors of vikings.

Did you not do any wineries then?

Violet said...

Really? That sounds so unlikely. No, we didn't do any wineries - firstly because neither of us wanted to do any driving once we got to Napier, secondly because I don't drink wine anyway and why the hell should the boy have fun and not me.