We left the campsite and headed to Napier. After the first 18K on gravel roads we hit the sealed roads and then the State Highway and made very good progress. I have great difficulty in keeping the van to 100kph on these roads and often found myself well-exceeding the limit with everyone else around. I think I am now over my initial problems with driving on the left. Logic tells me, cos we are on holiday and it is (sometimes) hot, I should be driving on the right. A right-hand drive car does not deter me, cos that’s what I’d be driving normally.

We stopped for a coffee and a stuffed sausage (how could anyone resist such a wonderfully-named delicacy?). It the Midway Café, where there were four tabby kittens. Rosemary fell in love with these.

Arrived at Napier and checked out a few campsites as we drove into town. The first one I had chosen was closed, washed out in the previous week’s floods. We found one which was decently near to town, but could be noisy as near an intersection.

Parked near the coast where there was a car boot type market in progress, didn’t buy anything despite the odd looking vegetables on sales. Then it was into town and a nice bookshop where Rosemary bought a book on birds of New Zealand. (Promptly lost a few hours later at the Irish bar.) We wandered around the town taking the odd pictures of the Art Deco buildings destroyed by the additional canopies and air conditioning units.

There seemed to be a large number of coffee shops and a distinct lack of bars. Eventually homed in on the Irish bar for lunch/supper and a few beers. Was nice sitting out on the street in the warm weather, (had started the day distinctly looking cloudy). I didn’t like the sign next to a clothing shop announcing autumn and the time to buy wet weather gear.

Back out of town to the campsite where we are parked next to the kids playground, hopefully none of the rugrats are around. R excited at the prospect of flush toilets & showers.