I'm back!
SO... Napier was pretty cool overall. I got to wear dresses, and put bobby pins in my hair, and dance with handsome strangers (well, not really strangers, but with new people, anyway. some of them rather handsome, too).
The drive there wasn't too bad, all things considered (hey, it's a 6 and a half hour drive, and it wasn't all that unbearable). We stopped at Taupo on the way for some KFC and the best gelato in the world at Keffee Eis. Seriously, hazelnut flavour is to kill for! Matt, Haden and Liana took turns with the driving, and we even had a bit of a sing-along going for a while :D
Well, since we left Auckland reasonably late on Friday, we got to our destination at about 7:30ish in the evening, at which time we checked into our art deco inn. At that point we quickly changed into some art-deco outfits and hit the town for the purposes of oogling at pretty old cars, steam engines, the last of the air show and the like. And of course there was dancing to the big band at the sound shell after it got dark, which was about as grand as dancing on an uneven concrete surface could be :) Mind you, the band did a fabulous job.
Anyway, on Saturday we munched on some breakfast, checked out the shops and the antiques fare, and had a very lively dancing workshop where we got taught how to dance in a very crowded dance floor without taking out the other couples. Personally, I think collisions in dancing are hilarious, but apparently other dancers don't share my enthusiasm for destruction :D Anyway, after that we watched the old car parade and had some lunch, and then a nap, and then some more walking around town, and then, of course, more dancing. Oh, and wine. And then more dancing. And then more wine. You get the picture, I'm sure. Anyway, I was dead tired and went to bed reasonably early, in order to get up at a reasonable hour the next morning.
The next morning (that would be sunday), we had a fabulous cooked breakfast, then it was time to check out of the place we were staying in so we threw the bags in the car and went for another nice walk around the place. Caught a little bit of the soap box cart rally, and watched people setting up and gathering for the Gatsby picnic. But the art deco celebration was winding down and there were much fewer people in costume, and lots of ordinary-looking people in ordinary-looking clothes were going about their ordinary sunday shopping. And then it occurred to all of us pretty much simultaneously that we all just wanted to get the heck out of there.. Don't know what it is, but I definitely wouldn't want to live in Napier. Or visit more than once a year, really.
And so there was the epic drive home. It is 149 kilometers between when you leave Napier and when you drive into Taupo, and there isn't a single gas station on the way. Not one. And while Matt knew there was plenty of petrol in the tank for us to get there, the fuel light going on about half way through that stretch didn't inspire confidence in the rest of us... we made it, of course, fueled up, had lunch, and once again got the compulsory gelato (coconut flavour.. i can't get enough of that). The rest of the drive was kinda uneventful. We stopped somewhere in a tiny town and bought pies... other than that, nothing else happened. It felt good coming back to civilization!
The drive there wasn't too bad, all things considered (hey, it's a 6 and a half hour drive, and it wasn't all that unbearable). We stopped at Taupo on the way for some KFC and the best gelato in the world at Keffee Eis. Seriously, hazelnut flavour is to kill for! Matt, Haden and Liana took turns with the driving, and we even had a bit of a sing-along going for a while :D
Well, since we left Auckland reasonably late on Friday, we got to our destination at about 7:30ish in the evening, at which time we checked into our art deco inn. At that point we quickly changed into some art-deco outfits and hit the town for the purposes of oogling at pretty old cars, steam engines, the last of the air show and the like. And of course there was dancing to the big band at the sound shell after it got dark, which was about as grand as dancing on an uneven concrete surface could be :) Mind you, the band did a fabulous job.
Anyway, on Saturday we munched on some breakfast, checked out the shops and the antiques fare, and had a very lively dancing workshop where we got taught how to dance in a very crowded dance floor without taking out the other couples. Personally, I think collisions in dancing are hilarious, but apparently other dancers don't share my enthusiasm for destruction :D Anyway, after that we watched the old car parade and had some lunch, and then a nap, and then some more walking around town, and then, of course, more dancing. Oh, and wine. And then more dancing. And then more wine. You get the picture, I'm sure. Anyway, I was dead tired and went to bed reasonably early, in order to get up at a reasonable hour the next morning.
The next morning (that would be sunday), we had a fabulous cooked breakfast, then it was time to check out of the place we were staying in so we threw the bags in the car and went for another nice walk around the place. Caught a little bit of the soap box cart rally, and watched people setting up and gathering for the Gatsby picnic. But the art deco celebration was winding down and there were much fewer people in costume, and lots of ordinary-looking people in ordinary-looking clothes were going about their ordinary sunday shopping. And then it occurred to all of us pretty much simultaneously that we all just wanted to get the heck out of there.. Don't know what it is, but I definitely wouldn't want to live in Napier. Or visit more than once a year, really.
And so there was the epic drive home. It is 149 kilometers between when you leave Napier and when you drive into Taupo, and there isn't a single gas station on the way. Not one. And while Matt knew there was plenty of petrol in the tank for us to get there, the fuel light going on about half way through that stretch didn't inspire confidence in the rest of us... we made it, of course, fueled up, had lunch, and once again got the compulsory gelato (coconut flavour.. i can't get enough of that). The rest of the drive was kinda uneventful. We stopped somewhere in a tiny town and bought pies... other than that, nothing else happened. It felt good coming back to civilization!