Nifty Napier and Windy Wellington

February 6 is Waitangi Day in New Zealand, it celebrates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and everyone gets the day off! Woo! So this year February 6 fell on a Thursday, which is great for me because I have Fridays off already. So this equals super looooooong weekend! And what better to do on a super long weekend then a road trip! So that’s exactly what we did. Amanda and Jenni were able to get the days off as well, so we were set and very excited!  

Amanda just Jenni she was leaving...

This was only for 5 days...

So we set out Wednesday night after work to Napier. As I picked up Amanda she had dropped possibly the biggest bomb on me: that she would be leaving New Zealand in a week. I tried my hardest not to cry and we decided right there that this weekend would have no tears and we would make the most out of the little time we had left! Now I don’t know if google maps had a glitch or something but it said that Napier was around a 3 hour drive from Auckland. It lied! It was more around 5! So we got to the hostel a lot later then we had expected. This made for an interesting encounter with the hostel owner. When we got there we rang a bell and were greeted by the hostel owner in his robe...  I don’t blame him though. I would have given up on us too. Anyways Napier is a popular tourist destination because of the Art Deco style architecture. So we stayed at this amazing hostel that looked like it used to be a 50’s hotel. We were pretty tired and giddy from the long drive so we had a view laughs (and scares) before going to bed. Amanda knows that I hate the dark and thinks it’s funny to whisper my name. It’s not... And so I may or may not have tried to tackle her and it back firing. 

We got up early-ish that morning to explore the town of Napier. It was a cloudy/rainy day but we only had that day so we made the most of it. We first just walked around and looked at all the buildings, it was seriously like you dropped us onto The Great Gatsby set. It was rebuilt in the Art Deco style after a massive 7.8 earthquake and 500 aftershocks. And it is now famous for this. 

 

Getting into the Art Deco spirit

So basically Amanda and I were set on doing 1 thing in Napier and this was the whole reason why we decided to stop in Napier and not Taupo on our way to Wellington and that was: Mister D! Mister D is known for it’s donuts and how they are served. You get to fill your own! So you get a choice of 3 flavours: custard, chocolate or jelly. Since we were 3 people we each got 1 and decided to share. These donuts were covered in sugar and so we played a game where you could not lick your lips. It was extremely difficult! And we all ended up with cinnamon-sugar lipstick. I lost, I couldn’t handle it. 

 

Next we went to The Napier Prison. It is no longer a functioning correctional facility but they operate tours now and it even used to be a backpacker for travellers. But they had too many paranormal experiences with guests that it is now just an attraction. It was very creepy walking through the prison and the weather definitely didn’t help. But mostly because a lot of horrible things happened in this place. They had audio tours and you could pick between a historic or ghost one. I went straight for the historic one! Jenni and Amanda braved the ghost one. I can’t remember all of the facts and stories but this was not a nice place to be and many weird and bad things happened there. And once again Amanda took advantage of the creepiness around us. We were standing in a room that used as the cafeteria and when I first walked in I got a good fright when I looked at the wall behind me and a scary face was painted on the wall. But Amanda thought it would be even funnier if she blew on my neck and whispered my name an inch from my face! (Who does this sound like?... cough* Jacquie cough*) I nearly punched her I was so scared. 

Actual graffiti from past prisoners

The Hanging Yard

After we finished, we started to hit the road to Wellington. We had met 2 boys living in Wellington while on our trip to the South Island and they said that we were welcome to stay with them which is a huge bonus cause we save a lot on not having to stay in hostels. We unpacked all our stuff and brought it up to the apartment we were staying in and then Matthijs took me to go park the car. On our way back it was pretty dark we walked through a park (which I later found out were the Botanic Gardens) but when we were about half way through I had started to notice grave stones. So I asked Matthijs if we were in a graveyard? And he laughed and said we had been walking through one for about 5 minutes already. This just was not my weekend! Seriously, just freaked out all the time! 

This was no ordinary weekend in Wellington. Every 1st weekend in February Wellington hosts The 7’s is an annual rugby tournament with teams coming from 16 different countries to compete. So basically people travel from all over to come to Wellington to watch these games. So the city was PACKED! We walked around the city, which is very different from Auckland. Wellington is more compact since it is surrounded by mountains and water. Auckland is a little more flat (if you can even say that about NZ) so things are more spread out. People lined the streets in all sorts of costumes. Apparently that’s what you do for The 7’s. 

Impromptu parade 

We stopped for a cold drink and started talking with a smurf (this guy was head to toe painted blue!) He could detect our accents and asked where we all from. When he found out I was Canadian he grabbed my arms and said ‘I love Canadians!’, leaving blue fingerprints all over arms. We walked to the waterfront and even though it had started to rain we jumped off a 10 foot plank into the cold harbour. 

Jenni was too scared 

Jarah showing off

One of the mum's Amanda babysat for has a sister who lives in Wellington and she works on the behind the scenes stuff for the LOTR and The Hobbit. So we planned to meet up with her for dinner that night. We met at this cool restaurant called Mighty Mighty. She was there with a couple of her co-workers and so we grabbed some food and drinks and joined them. It was such an amazing experience. One of the woman played a female dwarf, she showed us a picture, beard and all haha! They told us stories about the actors, sets and props, you name it, they knew!

Wellington is packed with heaps of LOTR stuff. So we made our way to The Weta Cave Museum, well at least I thought we were... I am seriously hopeless when it comes to directions! I did not get my grandpa Hoover’s sense of direction, which is a pity because it is a very useful skill to have. So after a 40 minute detour we made it to the Weta Cave. It was full of statues, books, figurines and movie memorabilia. 

After we got back into the city it was raining so, Amanda, Jenni and I went to grab some hot coffee. And look what we found!

It was sooo yummy! 

On our way back home Amanda and I walked through the Botanic Gardens even though it was still raining. We were not going to let the weather get us down. We even saw the Canadian Rugby team practicing in a field. 

Go Canada!

When we finally got back to the apartment, Jenni had started cooking dinner already. Amanda and I helped finish and we all sat down for a wonderful meal and lots of laughs! 

After dinner we decided to brave the streets and explore the 7’s atmosphere. We walked around the crowded streets for a bit taking in the craziness. 

The next day we needed to get back to Auckland. This involved an 8 hour drive north. Amanda does not have a driver license and Jenni doesn’t feel comfortable driving in cities or at night, so I ended up driving the entire way. As daunting as this sounds, this was one of the most amazing trips I’ve done. We basically talked for the first 5 hours without even realizing it. We played silly games like ‘would you rather’. And it wouldn’t be a proper round trip without a classic sing-a-long, so after we got tired of talking we rocked out to our favourite tunes. This was also one of the prettiest drives I’ve done. We drove back through the Tongariro National Park, this is where I did the 19km hike. So it was kind of bittersweet, brought back some crazy memories of that intense hike. When we finally saw the Auckland sign, I was relieved. My bed has never felt so good! 

Jenni, Amanda and I with Diana