NZ

Taupo – Napier

Our day started with us oversleeping for the first time in a while. Well, technically we can’t oversleep. But when I checked the time and it was already 8:45 am and we had to be checked out by 10 am, I felt a bit stressed.

But we finished everything on time and then had breakfast in a freezing cold dining room. When we were done with packing the car we found that the wood fire in the lounge had already been started and I “parked” myself in front of it for a while. Then the kids came, a movie was playing on TV and suddenly nobody felt the urge of leaving the place. It was a nice feeling of not just having the time but also allowing us to take it. Yes, we could have left earlier. Yes, we would have arrived earlier. But this way, we were nicely warm by the time we left and relaxed.

Before we left Taupo we stopped in a shop to find ourselves some very warm winter boots. We have finally arrived in winter. We put layers upon layers before we feel warm and getting out of bed is a struggle because underneath the quilt it is so nicely warm and cozy. And imagine, now we have warm winter boots and Alina didn’t want to take them off all day.

Our journey from Taupo to Napier was not very long. This is the route we took. here Watch what happened on our way.

Now in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar and even in Indonesia we got so upset about the rubbish we saw in the streets. We got angry about how little the locals seemed to care about their environment. Here we are in NZ and when we came to this scenic lookout I just couldn’t believe how much rubbish was laying around: plastic bottles, paper cups, clothes, paper, glass bottles… we even found a plastic roof of a barbie house. I got so upset that I took out a bag and we started picking up what we saw.

After that we were so cold that we wanted a warm cup of coffee or tea to warm up again. Believe it our not, all the cafes I saw on the way, were either closed or closed or closed. The Universe had its own plans with us. On our last stop we saw the cafe owner leaving when we arrived. So no coffee but I saw a walnut tree and instead of drinking something warm we picked up some walnuts. Yummy.

Finally we arrived in Napier at the yha.

day315
in Napier