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Sunday 31 July 2011

Back from Napier


We had a lovely break in Napier.



Napier is a town on Hawke's Bay on the East Coast of the North Island, about 300km from where we stay in Silverstream.

My Beloved beside "Pania of the Reef"

The weather was absolutely wonderful. It's the depth of Winter here in NZ, but it's nothing like the Scottish version.  The temperature was in the mid teens, and we had a clear blue sky, warm breezes and a dead flat sea.  The drive to Napier was relaxing.  We went through the Manawatu Gorge on the way up, stopping for coffee at Dannevirke.  My beloved had the idea of getting some audio book CDs from our local library before we went, so we enjoyed James Herriot's "If only they could talk" all the way there and back, and it certainly made the journey seem much quicker.

Manawatu Gorge

We spent most of our time in Napier just walking around, looking at antique shops and just simply relaxing together.  We had planned to go for a swim, but the sea was too cold, and the open air pools were just a tad too nippy, so we went for long walks up the esplanade.

Lovely meals as well. The Master of India in Ahuriri is strongly recommended; good strongly flavoured curries, the Bhuna Chicken was great.

On out last night we went to The Old Church Restaurant in Taradale.  Really lovely food, at about the same standard as Logan Brown in Wellington.

The old church restaurant

Now I'm "looking forward' to getting back to school tomorrow, so I should probably be doing some preparation work.  Or I could just relax in front of the TV, probably for the last time for a while.  i might even watch a replay last night's All Blacks v Springbocks match.  Go the ABs.

PS.   I know that NZ is a small country but we bumped into two ex-colleagues in Napier; Murray Ardron (who works in Napier Boys) so probably not too surprising, but also our ex-Principal, Rob Mill, back for a short holiday from Kuwait.  We caught upon some mutual gossip about Nuova Lazio, with a quick aside on a couple of character assassinations.  Fun.

9 comments:

  1. Good to hear you had a nice relaxing break and the weather was good to you after the snow and chills from earlier in the week. I got away but only to Palmerston North for a few days to catch up with elder daughter. Nice weather too. Fancy running into Millsy. All the best for tommorrow and the return to the trenches. By tea break you will be wishing for the next holidays. Ah well only another ten weeks and spring around the corner. Great game last night.

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  2. My friends went to Australia, from Bute. They walked into a shoe shop in Sydney during their month long sojourn and met two people from Rothesay. It's a small world right enough ;-)

    Ali x

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  3. "We had planned to go for a swim, but the sea was too cold, and the open air pools were just a tad too nippy"
    Splash Planet Hastings has an indoor heated pool.

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  4. TSB - Where ru? Am missing your latest riveting and hilarious blog. Have you got writers/bloggers block?? Surely a new fresh term and one week back along with a Saturday sleepin should give you plenty of incentive and fresh material? I hope Mrs Twisted has not taken an axe to your elcetronic mistress.

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