Napier to Gisborne

 The following day after brekkie, we headed north to Gisborne.

We thought Wellington to Napier was hilly with lots of curves. This journey to Gisborne was even worse and my shoulders were tired when we arrived at the motel. We had no trouble going to sleep right after dinner and then sleeping until dawn.

New Zealand has a human population of 5.3 million along with 23.6 million sheep. That's 4.5 sheep for every person. You see them everywhere, even on the steepest hillsides.

Marianne was thrilled to see Autumn leaves. 

As you might expect with all the green grass, there are plenty of cows.

Hills galore.

Rivers are mostly small and shallow.

The lush vegetation.

Our motel in Gisborne was a block away from the ocean. It was windy and cold and not too inviting. We did not linger.

We went to a brewery for dinner that also served pizzas. I ordered the Blue Moon pizza which was really tasty with the blue cheese. I will try making something similar in the near future. The beer was excellent. 

Wellington to Napier

 We are home now and it's easier to do the blogging on my laptop, sitting on my sofa. These days, we travel with just carry-on limited to 7 kg so I don't take my laptop, just the phone. Marianne has transferred her photos to me since I obviously can't take photos while driving.

Wellington is down left and Napier is upper right. The route looks straight forward, but there are an extraordinary number of steep hills and sharp curves.

Here you can see the typical curvy road through the hills. Fortunately, there was not too much traffic.

The countryside is incredibly green.

More curves ahead.

A rather high railway viaduct. The road surfaces were usually good, but the road crews are usually fixing hillslides or washouts.

There are so many hills and mountains. 

We saw well over 100 logging trucks. Logging must be a huge industry here.

Back in 1931, much of Napier was destroyed in a massive earthquake. The city centre was rebuilt in Art Deco style, and our hotel was named the Art Deco Masonic Hotel.

On the front verandah.

View across to the ocean.

Another impressive building.

It was Mother's Day in New Zealand (and Australia), so we ate dinner in the hotel's restaurant. For dessert, we each ordered one of these. The shells were formed of white chocolate and the concoction was quite delicious. The couple at the next table inquired if they were as good as they looked and I told the wife to order a plate. She was to get two of the blobs and her husband was to get only one. They both laughed.

Train from Auckland to Wellington

We are starting a ten day trip in the North Island of New Zealand. The first day is  ride on the Northern Explorer. We decided to lash out and reserved seats in the luxury carriage where we will be served food and drink throughout the trip.

The platform. It was supposed to rain today but it looks fine.

The raised tablecloth makes it easier to slide into your seat.

Spiffy lighting.

The hot towel was very welcome.

It's not often you are served a cappuccino on a train.

Auckland has lots of inlets.

The menu for thee trip.

Oddly enough, Marianne was carrying a sign with the same words that you can see at the bottom of the page when we met in Spain back in 1974. I must have been the only person around who spoke English.

All the food was delicious but I really enjoyed this.

Breakfast with bubbly.

We saw lots of these cats tails.

Everything is super green.

Lunch with a glass of syrah.

Dessert.

There are lots of deep gorges with bridges or viaducts.

Afternoon tea. The camembert was so rich that I could only eat half. We are not used to eating so much rich food.

Tet another river.

Dinner with Pinot noir. The wines were very tasty.

Dessert. I managed to eat it all.

The train passes next to the coast at dusk. The South Island was visible.

There was enough rain on the windows to make taking photos difficult at times. With all the train travel I have done, I cannot think of a more spectacular journey.