We wake up to a grey and rainy day. We had planned to tour around Napier to see the wonderful art deco architecture, but we are not very motivated by the weather. We go around town to see how it was completely re-built after an earthquake leveled it in 1931. The town was completely rebuilt in the Art Deco style of the time and is a wonderful example of the designs of the time. We visit the welcome center where the greeters are dressed in the clothing of the 1930's - welcoming us to their town. We return to the information center to inquire if they can assist us with finding a hotel in Wellington for the following two nights, but they are very discouraging since their is an international rugby tournament in Wellington this very weekend. No wonder I haven't been able to find anywhere to stay. We widen our circle to include suburbs of Wellington with no luck. Finally, we are able to find a place about an hour and a half from Wellington that has a train that goes into the city.
We drive from Napier to a town called Masterton and stop for
lunch underway in a town called Dannevirke.
We arrive a little after the lunch hour and so have few choices for
lunch. We stroll through small shops
aimlessly, happy to be out of the car for a while and settle on a small café/bakery
for lunch sandwiches and burgers. After
our brief respite, we are again on the road.
We arrive in Masterton around 5:30 and head straight for the information
center to get directions to our hotel.
This town is full of wonderful looking parks. We park and make use of the public facilities
and walk for a short while through the park to the information center. We
inquire about the trains the following morning that will take us into the town
of Wellington, the capital city. It
turns out we are very close to our hotel and we head up the street and locate
it shortly. It is called the Chanel
Court Hotel and is an old building with countless cottages connected to it
through internal corridors. We get
checked in and unpacked before Sam and I heading out to a grocery store for
supplies. This place has a set up that
is not very condusive to having 5 inhabitants.
The kitchen is tiny, even for this type of accommodations and the
utensils are sparse. Oh well, we will
manage somehow. We fix a yummy dinner
of salmon, green beans and mashed potatoes with cheese and bacon. Everyone settles in and we watch American
Idol before retiring to our beds and reading into the wee hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment