Worst...driver...ever...

Another early start. Today's destination: Napier. There were no free bagels at the hostel this time (wasn't the right day) haha. My new driver: Rangi. Honestly the worst driver I could have possibly gotten (and Kristina and Louise completely agreed). He seemed really pleasant at first, but we quickly found out how annoying he was. He'd end everything with "sweet as" (a NZ phrase that is along the lines of saying "cool" or "alright") which is a unique Kiwi thing I really liked (and actually almost started using it myself hahaha), except he completely overused it. Then there was his habit of going on the intercom every so often to tell us if we had any questions, we should go talk to him at the front of the bus (it happened so frequently he came off sounding really desperate for someone to talk to him hahaha), and he'd take forever to explain something simple. And the biggest problem was he'd always forget to do bookings when he said he would (as I would find out later on; more on that in another post). The only one good thing was that I was now back on a North Island bus, which I found have slightly more leg room than the Magic Bus buses used in the South Island.

Back to the rolling green hills of the North Island.


At our first stop, a kiwi bird sanctuary centre, which happened to have cafe inside (go figure eh?). I didn't see any birds - you had to pay to see them (which I remember being overpriced) - and instead had some venison pie for breakfast. I'd never tried venison (deer meat) before, and it was pretty good (and pretty chewy)! Kiwis like their pies (they're sold at almost every cafe) - must be a British thing that carried over.

Then we drove straight through to Napier, known for its art deco architecture, and the surrounding Hawkes Bay wine region. But we were actually supposed to make one more stop along the route before arriving in Napier, for a Tui brewery tour (the attraction not being the tour itself but the very cheap beer offered at the end of the tour). But Rangi highly suggested that we should skip it and drive straight through to get into town a half hour to an hour earlier than scheduled so that we could have more time in Napier, particularly emphasizing the shark swim at the aquarium in town. Then he put it up to a vote, and with most people following his recommendation, we skipped the brewery tour. Worst recommendation ever! Yes, we got into town earlier, but that didn't matter at all - it was still too late to do any of the same day activities (except for the shark swim, which nobody on the bus ended up signing up for anyway) and there was nothing to do in this small town. So instead of getting a chance to do something interesting, we spent more time in a town to be completely bored out of our minds! And I found out a few days later from those on a later bus that the brewery tour had been really fun and it was unbelievable the amount of beer they gave you for the very cheap price you paid (I think it was $2 for 2 full glasses or something like that, and Tui was a pretty good nationally sold beer)! Rangi really dropped the ball on this one.

So like I said, we got into town early, so I was hoping I'd have time to do a half-day tour of some of the wineries nearby, except, as you already know, it was already too late as the tours had already finished for the day. Then I inquired about the possibility of renting a bicycle so that I could bike out to at least some of the neighbouring wineries to attend some tastings, but the hourly rental rate was ridiculously expensive, and it started to drizzle (I didn't really feel like biking in the rain)! So, I had nothing to do but walk around the tiny town for a bit before I got to cooking some dinner (more pasta and baked beans hahaha - it's really easy on the wallet!).

Some views as I explored the town. You might notice how white the sky is - it's the side effect of brightening photos with a almost solid grey sky (something I'm sure you've noticed in quite a lot of my photos in the past few posts). The tour buses in the 9th photo were actually busing people back to a cruise ship - I guess Napier is a port of call for cruises that include NZ in their itinerary. The art deco was pretty interesting though.

That night at the hostel (I stayed at the YHA Napier; it was quite an old building), I joined some other backpackers and spent the entire night watching movies - the uncut version of Forgetting Sarah Marshall (it seemed like there was so much more penis screen time in the uncut version hahaha), Bourne Identity, and Bourne Supremacy. Like I said, there was absolutely nothing to do in town...I couldn't believe I spent a night in NZ watching 3 movies (but at least they were good ones)!