With the weekend off work, we decided that it seemed somehow wrong that we're living on an enormous beautiful island, but haven't really seen the coast yet. So we headed to Napier, as city in Hawk's Bay. It's about a two hour drive east from Taupo through a stunning mountain range.
Liz booked us a night in a great bed and breakfast in Napier. It has a great tiered garden that the boys loved running through. We walked through downtown Napier, which is apparently Art Deco capital of New Zealand. If there is one thing you know about me, it's that I love art deco. We also walked down to the beach to roam around throw rocks into the ocean.
We had a delicious breakfast the next morning, then went to the Saturday farmer's market and grabbed some brunch. The afternoon was spent on a Gannet Safari tour of Cape Kidnappers. For those of you who are not Audubon members, the gannet is a large sea bird that migrates from New Zealand to Australia for the first 3 years of life, then returns back to the same nesting colony it was born in, where it mates for life and breeds chics. They fly for two weeks straight to reach Australia. About 30% make it back. We were the first tour group of the season (it's a little early for gannet touring, apparently). But that meant that we were pretty much by ourselves. So our guide Adrien took us to the colony in a Land Rover. The views were awesome, both of the birds and the landscape. We even had tea time, compete with fresh cream and biscuits. It was like a Land Rover commercial.
The drive back was a little frightening, as a storm blew in through the mountains and we were nearly blown of the road once. But we survived, and Cohen pretty much slept through the whole ordeal.
Back to work for the week now.
Liz booked us a night in a great bed and breakfast in Napier. It has a great tiered garden that the boys loved running through. We walked through downtown Napier, which is apparently Art Deco capital of New Zealand. If there is one thing you know about me, it's that I love art deco. We also walked down to the beach to roam around throw rocks into the ocean.
We had a delicious breakfast the next morning, then went to the Saturday farmer's market and grabbed some brunch. The afternoon was spent on a Gannet Safari tour of Cape Kidnappers. For those of you who are not Audubon members, the gannet is a large sea bird that migrates from New Zealand to Australia for the first 3 years of life, then returns back to the same nesting colony it was born in, where it mates for life and breeds chics. They fly for two weeks straight to reach Australia. About 30% make it back. We were the first tour group of the season (it's a little early for gannet touring, apparently). But that meant that we were pretty much by ourselves. So our guide Adrien took us to the colony in a Land Rover. The views were awesome, both of the birds and the landscape. We even had tea time, compete with fresh cream and biscuits. It was like a Land Rover commercial.
The drive back was a little frightening, as a storm blew in through the mountains and we were nearly blown of the road once. But we survived, and Cohen pretty much slept through the whole ordeal.
Back to work for the week now.