Scott and I decided to roadtrip up to Northland to spend
time at another family bach. Driving through New Zealand is absolutely
beautiful, reminding me of Northern California until of course you noticed the
prominence of ferns everywhere. I would not have been half surprised if a
brontosaurus poked its head out!
Lucky for us Waipu Cove was pretty much empty of people
because it is not the weekend… apart form a HUGE gaggle of Sea Scouts who were
camping in the grounds right behind the bach. We joked that mealtimes were like
feeding time at the zoo with all the kids running around, screaming. The beach
was beautiful, literally a two-minute walk from the back porch. We bodysurfed
and swam out past the breakers.
The
water was a crystal clear turquoise.
Shells were everywhere so I had to watch out for my tooties!
We had agreed that this week would be about pure relaxation,
so we stocked up on fruits and veggies for some fry-ups with eggs (and the most
UH-mazing egg sandwich ever!!), some good Aussie wine (jeezus is it cheap and
delicious), and some Whittaker’s dark chocolate (the one and only TRUE Kiwi
chocolate brand… sorry but Cadbury’s is produced in Australia).
Scott’s grandma came around for the day on Tuesday, so we
ate lunch together and then wandered down the campgrounds to get some ice cream
at Tip Tops (yay NZ ice cream!). We ordered two single scoops of boysenberry
and one single scoop of rum raisin… deeelightful!
Each evening we finished out sitting on the evening porch
with some wine, cheese, and chocolate. Relaxing INDEED!
Photos [from top]: Beach at Waipu Cove, Ocean Beach at the Whangarei Heads at Sunset (middle two), view from Scott's uncle's balcony
We began our road trip by heading west through the Taupo
region with a final destination of Napier, also know as the Art Deco Capital of
NZ. [Unfortunately for Scott, I kept hearing something else which is not
appropriate for this blog every time he said “art deco”!] Taupo was rather
overcast but we wandered around the lake before deciding on Thai food for
lunch. We were a smidgeon disappointed by the Thai food as it was neither salty
nor spicy enough for our liking; but some soy sauce and hot sauce cured our
noodles of all ills!
One we made it to Napier, I was trying to figure out why I
kept feeling like I had seen the city before. While walking through the streets
[which were eerily Santa Monica-4th Street Promenade-like] I
realized that Napier had taken full advantage of the “Art Deco” gimmick, reminding
me of Main Street in Disneyland. Regardless, we found an Irish Pub [yes shocker
I know], named the “Brazen Head”, where a very kind bartender advised us on the
best place to buy fish and chips while we sipped our Mac’s Brewery Three Wolves
Lager.
We checked into our campground at the Westshore Holiday Park
and set up our tent. We head off on a walk to the Hawke’s Bay Seafood Company
to get some fish ‘n’ chips to enjoy on the beach with some New Zealand craft
beer. Unfortunately for us the girl completely screwed up our order giving as
LOADS of potato wedges instead of the LOADS of fish we requested. Regardless we
enjoyed the black sand beach and our meal of entirely fried food.
That night at the campsite, I pretended to be five years old
as a jumped on the giant campground trampoline while making fun of Scott for
missing the weight cutoff by five kilos. We made friends with the campground
kitty cat and decided to knock out early. Our sleep was interrupted by the
violent vomiting of man in the bathroom that the receptionist lady had, with
only good intentions, placed our campsite near. 
