Yes, we have been traveling and not able to get to an internet connection. No really, no electricity, no nothing. Honest. Well, ok, so we were having a great time and sort of neglected to check for internet places.<\/p>\n
The concert and dinner was fun. We had a good time, enjoyed the dancing and singing and had a good dinner. The next morning we went to the geysers and crafts centre. That was good – walked all over the park looking at the mud pools, hot pools, river, and geysers. We then drove to Taupo to have a look at NZ’s largest lake. Joe got out of the car, took a few photos, and said ‘right, we’ve done this then’. I thought it was quite nice.<\/p>\n
Then we drove to Napier which is a lovely place. The town was pretty much destroyed in 1931 by an earthquake and was then rebuilt within 18 months using all the latests designs and techniques. So it’s a beautiful Art Deco town. The first night we walked into town and ended up in a Spanish tapas place. Had an excellent meal.<\/p>\n
Next day we spent the morning doing the Art Deco tour of the town and walking about. Then in the afternoon it was wine tasting in Hawkes Bay (can you tell this was my sort of day?) We had to introduce ourselves in the mini-bus on the wine tasting tour (8 of us and the guide) and say what wine we liked. Joe introduces himself then says ‘I don’t drink wine’. There’s always one in every tour! The guide broke the news to him that he was on a wine tasting tour and pretty much stuck. But we had a good time. Joe would listen to the information about the winery then when the wine was poured, disappear off. Of course, one of the other women from London came over to me and said ‘keep him around and you’ll get double the tasting!’ Now I know quite a bit more about 5 wineries in the Hawkes Bay area – definitely like it!<\/p>\n
The drive to Wellington was nice – right through a gorge which was lovely. But pretty much the scenery has been very much like home with farms and lots and lots of sheep and cattle.<\/p>\n
Wellington is lovely. We rode the cable car yesterday to the Botanical Gardens and a view over the city. Had a coffee in the cafe at the top. Today we went to the main museum which was great. Lots to do and see and quite tiring.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow we’re off early to return the car and take the ferry over to the south island. We get another car once there and are off to Nelson. Freshwater diving the day after!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yes, we have been traveling and not able to get to an internet connection. No really, no electricity, no nothing. Honest. Well, ok, so we were having a great time and sort of neglected to check for internet places. The concert and dinner was fun. We had a good time, enjoyed the dancing and singing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4T97-O","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":92,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2003\/06\/06\/92\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":0},"title":"Hello from Kyoto.","date":"Friday, 6 June 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello from Kyoto. I hope this computer doesn't start doing Japanese again - I was happily typing e-mails and next thing I know the stupid thing won't type in English any more - just Japanese! But it's a free Internet place so I can't complain - well I can but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4208,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2020\/01\/05\/final-road-trip\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":1},"title":"Final Road Trip","date":"Sunday, 5 January 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday was driving, just driving pretty much! We woke up to a bit less smoke - not sure if it was the towel or the a\/c but slept better. Up and over cups of tea we worked out a safe route - we wanted to spend a couple of days\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":305,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/21\/snow-reprise\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":2},"title":"Snow Reprise","date":"Monday, 21 December 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Got to Lexington and more snow. Waited at the airport until midnight for Allison to come in, then drove through the snow to the hotel. Then sleep. When we got up the snow had stopped but we had a good bit on the car to brush off. Visted for most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2005\/12\/19\/penguin-signs\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":3},"title":"Penguin signs","date":"Monday, 19 December 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi! Yes, we've been enjoying ourselves. Please forgive any typos - I'm very tired and this keyboard is sensitive! Right, we left Nelson and drove to Kaikoura which is a wonderful place. Really wonderful. We've had the best meal of our trip - if you are ever in Kaikoura go\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":405,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2010\/08\/13\/brideshead-visited\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":4},"title":"Brideshead Visited","date":"Friday, 13 August 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"So yesterday at some point we saw a leaflet about Castle Howard and Friend said 'oh, they filmed Brideshead Revisited there and I've always wanted to see that!' So we got up and had a leisurely breakfast, got the car and drove up to Castle Howard. Learned a lot about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Frog Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":218,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2008\/08\/25\/it%c2%b4s-ok-we%c2%b4re-from-belguim\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":5},"title":"It\u00c2\u00b4s OK we\u00c2\u00b4re from Belguim","date":"Monday, 25 August 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Dutch keyboard! Nothing is in the right place! That\u00c2\u00b4s my excuse for any typos. We pulled in to park at the wedding party and met up with another group parking. They said \"so you\u00c2\u00b4re from Belgium!\" We said from the UK and they said \"so you went to Belgium and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Frog Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}