Oh boy, the heavens opened up last night, the sound of the wind and rain was torrential on our chalet roof. Luckily by the time we woke the worst had passed. We were in no rush this morning so had a lay in and eventually packed up and left around 10.00 after my wonderful husband had prepared fruit and toasted hot cross buns for breakfast.

We set off towards our first stop of the day and a few miles down the road drove past The Tangiwai Disaster Memorial, omg what a tragic story do look it up and have a read on NZ’s worst railway disaster, it’s so sad.

Our first official stop was (Fizzy and Pete should appreciate this one) the Springdale Suspension Bridge, built in 1925 and decommissioned in 1970.

I say official stop but as we were taking the country roads and the scenery was outstanding we kept stopping to take pictures and we also found where all the sheep have been hiding!

We then continued to the outskirts of Napier to have a walk at the Otatara Pa Reserve.

Again the scenery was some of the best we have seen, so many shades of green in the rolling countryside and rugged river valleys. Most of the route was on the Taihape-Napier road which climbs to 760 metres through the Kaweka Forest Park and the windy roads seem to go on forever.

Unfortunately I didn’t really enjoy the walk as it was hot and humid and I didn’t realize how steep some of the climbs were (not good after yesterday) plus it was poorly signed so we kept going wrong! Anyway an hour and 10 mins later we were on our way to our hotel in Napier.

Checked into a fab room on the 5th floor of the Scenic Hotel Te Pania and we could see the Pacific Ocean from our room (tbh the way the hotel is built all rooms can see the sea). We then decided to visit the local tourist information centre to plan tomorrow’s activities and discussed over a pint or two in the local Irish bar ‘Rosie O’Grady’s’.

Whilst in the pub we also tried working out the 15 letters used in the Màori alphabet. We almost managed it, not realising that 2 of the letters were actually doubles ie ‘ng’ and ‘wh’.

It was still quite early so we had a walk around the main streets where the majority of the art deco buildings were and ended up in ‘Sangam’ and had the most tastiest Indian.

A final walk around the area and straight to bed.