It has been a busy week, but with our first real rain day. On Monday, Marlene went raspberry picking with her friend Glenys, and came home with a good haul, lasting us most of the week....made the Weetbix a bit more interesting in the morning.
We managed to fit in several longish bike rides. The secret is to get out as early as possible, before the wind picks up. It always starts off calm in the morning and then the wind starts gusting around noon, so if we are out early enough we can get out and back without undue wind and before the heat of the day. Clive has been a frequent destination, due partly to wind direction, but largely due to the Zepplin Cafe, which is our favourite coffee destination. It does not look like much from the road, but it has a really nice back patio covered with grape vines. They also have the best date scones that we have found in the Napier area.
Zepplin Cafe - front side
Zepplin Cafe - back patio
Tuesday was generally rainy, so we snuck into town between rain showers and went to the movies, to see "The Lady in the Van". We thoroughly enjoyed the movie and Maggie Smith was perfect for the part of the lady.
With our time in Napier rapidly diminishing, on Wednesday we took the bus to Hastings and on to Havelock North, which are just a little beyond our cycling comfort zone. We had a good look around both towns, and rode the bus with all the best people....on the trip home from Hastings we sat in front of a group who had appeared in Hastings court earlier in the day, one of whom had appeared in Napier court in the morning, and was then arrested and taken to appear in Hastings court on another charge. The language was fairly colourful, but it was interesting to watch the interaction with the other passengers.
On Thursday we biked north, then met Maureen for coffee in Ahuriri, and had dinner with her and Denzil, as they are leaving town on Wednesday of next week, leaving us limited time for visiting with them.
Our farming friends, John and Marilyn, from Palmerston North arrived on Friday for the weekend, so the 4 of us did a lot of catching up, and did the tourist thing. We went up to the Bluff Hill lookout, which has great panoramic views over Hawke Bay. The photo below was of the port area from the lookout, with a container ship being loaded. Cruise ships come into Napier every 3-4 days, and they dock on the far right side of the port, but none in port this weekend.
Port of Napier from Bluff Hill
Later in the day, searching for a sandy beach (the Napier beaches are primarily pebbles), we headed to Clifton, where we walked a short distance on the beach towards Cape Kidnappers. As we walked along the beach we saw a seal lying in the sand. He made no attempt to move away from us, and we were concerned that he might be injured, but we had seen signs posted on other beaches in the area saying that seals don't need rescuing, they just need rest. So we left him resting, and hopefully he went back to sea on the incoming tide.
Seal on beach at Clifton
On Saturday night we picked up fish and chips in Ahuriri and the 4 of us ate them out of the paper, sitting on a bench at the beach, where we watched the container ship heading out to sea, and the tugs bringing in another container ship for unloading, while two more lay at anchor in the bay, awaiting their turn.
Today we biked out to Taradale and back, and stopped at Mitre 10 Mega (New Zealand's version of Home Depot) to check out all of the latest gadgets and gimmicks. The weather is warming up again, with a high of 31 forecast for Tuesday.
We are now entering our last week in Napier, and so will have to revisit all of our favourite haunts, before we head north on our next adventure, although there are a couple of good movies coming to town, so we may break down and see another show.
No comments:
Post a Comment