Mona had in spotted a Thai Massage place close to us while she was picking up the Indian food yesterday and in her immense kindness made a reservation so I could get a nice massage to compensate for the stressful events the previous days.

An hour of blissful massage (not the best I’ve had but certainly not bad and a welcome relaxation) later we got back to the room and decided that we would move on today so didn’t extend our stay – the reception also had verified that they indeed had the second key so we were all good, and they kindly assisted us with scanning the filled out forms to Jucy so we could send that off as well. I have to laud the hotel, VR Napier Hotel – Tennyson Street, for their service.

Mona can’t decide if it’s the sun or her nutritious brunch that she likes most.

We packed the car but left it at the hotel parking and took another walk in Napier – Mona had a few places she wanted to re-visit before we would leave. I had a very nice “Buddha bowl” for brunch at Chantal, a store that sold all sorts of organic products. We then spent some time at Storm where Mona tried on clothes to her delight until she somehow managed to pick out a pair of four identical (well almost) pants. We then walked back to the hotel and checked the duct tape on the car before driving further towards Taupo.

Compare and Contrast the choice of brunch.

We checked out places to stay from the car, booking.com really has changed how we and I think most other people travel. It was supposed to be a whole day of rain for tomorrow so we went for a little fancier studio with spa-facilities and private spa for an extended slacking period.

It’s weird but these lovely surrounds starts to become blasé – almost at least.

It was a two-hour hour drive, green as usual but otherwise rather uneventful so I did some reading about Taupo, the biggest lake in New Zealand (and the name of the town as well) and learned that it was actually covering a super volcano – sounded exiting.

After a smooth check-in I surveyed the pools from our balcony and saw a bus of senior citizens arrived after and they were in the pool faster than their age indicated. The city centre is a few minutes drive in so after settling in and slacking a bit we took the car in to actual Taupo. It was enough with the Indian food so instead we went to Volcanic Kitchen for wood fired pizzas and craft beer (for yours truly). Tasted really good and we managed to actually finish two large pizzas on our own – but were happy we didn’t need to walk back home.

Well, not all meals can be healthy. “Southern Man” including BBQ-sauce wasn’t bad…

The evening was concluded by trying out the private hot tub with jets to Juni’s delight. Last but not least there was some hiccups with the network connection to the NAS in Oslo so a bit of troubleshooting took place, which I concluded was something is wrong at Synology relay servers despite they indicate on their home pages everything is working – bah.

We woke after a good and long night’s sleep and crossed our fingers for better luck today. After skimming the fine print of the rental it seemed we ought to contact them so we called Jucy just to check things were cool (we were not really looking forward to handing the car in to their place in Wellington and wait until it got fixed or something equally ludicrous) and we were told that it’s all good since we got the stress-free option but we got some forms to fill out and then we will leave the car as originally planned in Auckland and it’s their problem how/when they fix it. It was a great start of the day to clear that out and avoid it looming over the day.

The wine-tour was however indeed cancelled, or rather they pooled up with other companies so we  were given the option of an afternoon tour of three wine-estates (Moana, Ash Ridge and Crossroads) and a cheese platter which suited is quite well.

Emmerson Street with the world best preserved Art Deco style.

Now somewhat hungry we rushed out and headed out for Breakfast on the Emmerson street (which seems to be their main promenade street), conveniently just around the corner from our hotel and took the first open café. I tried Mona’s diet of croissants filled with cheese, ham and lettuce but I really can’t get the fascination with croissants – it’s just breadcrumbs and air. Anywho, we took the stroller and walked along the street towards the beach. Mona got infatuated with a shop called Storm selling women clothing, I scouted the videogame store but only made mental notes for when I get back.

Juni was fascinated by the waves underneath her

The beach was almost black and they had a nice platform one could walk out to and get a better view, it was warm but not warm enough for a test of the waters.

As we strolled back we realized we were a bit short on time, so I went ahead while Mona checked out hats in some art deco inspired store. As I got to the hotel and started change the stroller and take out the car seat for the wine-tour they arrived to pick us up. I was a bit stressed since Mona was just arriving and we hadn’t had time to get anything from the room – this is when I realize the keys are not in the packpack where I thought they should be.

Not only buildings have style in Napier – but even pieces of art get parking tickets.

Well well, off we drove and after going through backpack and pockets it was safe to say that the room key are not on my person – a good exercise for yours truly in relaxing.

Wine helps relaxation, and as usual the sound volume and dialogue of the group increases over time so pretty soon it was out of my mind. It was a nice group, and lovely wines –  Mona even picked up a very nice bottle to save for five years at Ash Ridge, we’ll see how that goes. Two of the group were from Arizona and politically republicans, they were however eager to bring up the political discussion and point out that they never ever would vote for Trump. I still haven’t made up my mind whether to sell off all stocks in case the apocalypse indeed comes but then again perhaps that will be the least of my problems.

For a cheese platter there’s quite a lot of non-cheese

We got home and were let in to the room by the reception, unfortunately no keys found in the room (I might have left them in the room in the hurry when we left) but reception stated on the other hand that thought they had two for some reason so perhaps the cleaning staff took one? At least all our stuff was there so that was a relief.

We decided to keep the indian trend and picked the #3 on TripAdvisor and top ranked for Inidian take out – Indigo, unfortunately it was not as good as the re-heated one from the other day but a rather mediocre dish, I guess all good things must come to an end.

We debated whether to extend in Napier or not, it was a cosy town with all the Art Deco style but not that much to do so we choose to sleep on that decision.

Wellington (at least inner city) was now considered to visited enough so we checked out from the apartment and headed to Flying Hangar for breakfast, another hip place with fresh organic breakfast alternatives. They did their own spicy chai (not the syrup stuff that most places uses) which was tasty and I had a veggie burrito to that which was above average but spectacular – then we were set for a somewhat longer drive to Napier and crosser our fingers for Juni’s temper / sleep schedule.

Fully aware of the hair, thank you for asking.

We stopped about midway to get a coffee midway, and had a minor parking incident. I don’t know who came up with the brilliant idea of having downward slanting concrete just before the end (or side as my father noted in Akaroa earlier) of the parking but the effect is that if you drive to short you get a fine, if you drive to far you may hear that something scratches on the underside (since the car drops a cm or two) – this isn’t the main problem however. Backing out of this is, since the underside can get stuck on the parking stone, and when the car backs out the plastic front part is stuck in place while the car is moving – until something that’s supposed to hold it in place snaps that is. Nothing a little duct tape could fix, but let’s just say that we are very happy we got the stress-free insurance option.

Duct tape ftw

We finally arrived in Napier, and after getting some cutlery and plates from the helpful reception we warmed up the old indian takeaway we brought and it still tasted really good. Mona set us up for a wine tour for the next day but it wasn’t entirely clear whether they would go if it was only us so we would follow up tomorrow morning. A bit emotionally drained from the car issue and the longer drive we took an early night.