Breakwater Apartments Napier

... and see what the town was about. We had a look at some of the hot springs in the town and the formal Government Gardens, but then Wendy, whilst reading the brochure for Wai-O-Tapu thermal park, saw that the Lady Knox geyser was due to erupt at 10.15am. Quick fill with petrol and then a mad dash in the car 20 mins down Hwy. 5 to the park. Made it with 5 mins to spare, at which point the incredible timekeeping of the geyser was ...

... herbaceous nose. Fresh apples on the palette with good acidity.

2008 Pinot Gris - A third has seen seasoned oak. Pears and cinnamon. Good rich palette, fresh pear fruit and good acidity.

2006 Barrel fermented Sauvignon Blanc - Lots of tangerine on the nose and grapefruits - mmm. More tangerine on the palette with a long creamy finish.

2006 Barrel fermented C******nay - Nine months oak, 50% new, partial malo. Soft, hint of ...

... Dolphins in the area so it was canceled for the day. Instead we signed up to go whale watching in the afternoon. The type of whales we were looking for were the absolutely massive sperm whale. The way it works is that they take you out on the boat for about 90 minutes and if they can't find a whale in that time then you get an 80% refund. Although apparently their success rate is 98%. The first hour was spent cruising around while the ...

... over the next few days. Anyway at 11.30pm (after much persuasion ... not really!) went downstairs for a drink with the bus driver. The town for a Saturday night was dead - even the bar tenders were surprised though thought would pick up at about 1am!! Anyway it never really picked up nor did anything else around town. So 6 drinks and 3 hours later went to bed for a few hours. Thank goodness breakfast was being provided here - I needed it the next morning!!

... Kiwi eggs) a day, all without a natural predator. And, New Zealand may be the only country in the world that has its own "Opossum World" museum/store; · Did you know you can make clothes (sweaters/shawls) out of a fabric that contains 30% possum fur; · New Zealand seems to have an inordinate number of "Fish and Chip Chinese Takeaway" stores...don't know why; · The Children's Pageant was performed at the church we went to this morning...I now know ...

... so easy to spot the animals, and of course it was impossible to take any photos, because you weren't allowed to take pictures with flash. But at least, I saw it. So, now there's just still the Kiwifruit missing... And then we came to Napier. This time, the Magic Bus driver didn't really gain my sympathy, and we were so few people again like in the beginning when we started in Auckland. Anyway, it's gonna be another bus ...

... and Amera but leaving Harriet who was moving further up to Mount Monganui. On arriving in Taupo we booked ourselves into the YHA and were disappointed to learn we could not do a skydive due to the poor weather conditions :(. We spent the evening eating beef stir fry, watching DVDs and being storked by a fellow backpacker (Sam & Alex were storked by a young female admirer).

After a week long excursion, I found myself back in Napier with my friends ready the deciding cricket game between New Zealand and England. However before the third test began we had a few free days, and we made the short 2 hour drive to Taupo. Spending most of the time unsuccessfully trying to persuade them to try an adrenaline filled activity like sky diving or white water rafting. We ended up on a jet boat trip down the rapids on the Waikato River ...

What a wonderful small town in NZ. In the early 1930's the town was destroyed by fire and then rebuilt in the Art Deco style. On the day we arrived they were celebrating their annual art deco festival in honor of the rebuild. At the dock around ...

... style in mind. I also heard from someone that there was alot of interest in Egyptian motifs during the same time so there are several places where such designs are seen in the details. I walked around downtown and took pictures of several of the buildings - they were fairly conspicuous. I also walked down the beach a ways to get to New Zealand's National Aquarium. It wasn't very big, but it did have a few ...