Monday, February 29, 2016

North Island Here We Come

Sunday we turned in our rental car at the Picton ferry terminal and boarded the ferry after an hour delay for our 3 hour cruise to the North Island. We headed to the top deck to get the best view.


The weather was great but a bit windy and the crossing the Cook Strait was a pretty calm sail.


Beautiful scenery of all the mountainous shoreline.


Once we hit the open waters,we headed inside to enjoy a bit of refreshments and warmth.


Approaching the North Island, Wellington (New Zealand's capital) comes into sight.


After debarking and picking up a new rental car, we immediately headed north out of town for a 2 hour drive to Masterton to find a motel room. Finally found one with a/c (they are difficult to find) and proceeded to walk to the Lone Star for a Texas style dinner.


I had the lamb shoulder and it was great.


Monday morning we headed for Napier which is in Hawks Bay known for red wines that Jim likes. It took us about 45 minutes to find a motel, but once settled we took off for the wineries. Tasted at 5 places and only found a couple of wines we liked, but they were better than the South Island.


Didn't get pictures of the area because it was nasty weather, cold and raining. Woke up to rain this morning, so headed towards Auckland (which natives pronounce it like we would say Oakland) raining most of the way and found a room in Hamilton, about 1 1/2 hours south of Auckland. Went for a 5 mile walk around this lake that is close to our motel. It was a real pleasant walk except for the humidity about 70%. Now sitting  back watching Kansas Texas BB game while doing laundry. 




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