Napier

After a breakfast of toast in the beautiful kitchen in Ohakune we got in the car and headed for Napier. We knew it would take us a couple of hours so started listening to a detective audio series that Matt had downloaded. It was rather addictive and made the lovely scenery of trees and farms even better. Just before we reached Napier we passed a chocolate place. Obviously we had to stop. It was called the Silky Oak chocolate company and had a little chocolate museum and shop and cafe. We wanted to go in the museum but it was a little pricey so we settled for a hot chocolate in the cafe instead. However, we didn't go for any ordinary hot chocolate, we went for the extreme hot chocolate. This was a thick hot chocolate in a little teacup that was eaten with a spoon and topped with vanilla cream and a chocolate shaped like a pretzel. Matt opted for the chilli option so his had chilli flakes sprinkled on the cream. At first I thought it was small but when I tasted how sickly it was I was glad of the size. It was delicious but you wouldn't want too much of it. 

After our little indulgence we headed into Napier, stopping at a supermarket on the outskirts so we could buy tea for tonight and something for lunch. With our food we drove to our hostel but realised it had no parking. I don't think any of the hostels had any parking actually. However, we found a road round the corner where it was free to park so walked with our food to the hostel. A nice lady checked us in and told us that the place wasn't very lively at the moment. It's not peak season so we weren't surprised. However, this meant we got the kitchen to ourselves so we quickly heated up our soup (I had tomato and ravioli) which warmed up our bellies. It wasn't the greatest soup in the world but it was something different so I enjoyed it. 

We still had the afternoon to explore Napier so started with a self guided walking tour of the town. It's a pretty small place but is famous for its 1930s Art Deco buildings. It was nice to see but when we'd walked down the three main streets there wasn't really anything else to do. Napier sat by the sea so we walked along the bay as well and discovered a little mini golf place. I'd told Matt a while ago that I've never played any kind of gold before so he's been wanting to play for a while. It was cheap and we were bored so we did the whole 18 holes. I was winning for quite a while as I got a hole in one somehow but in the end Matt faught back and beat me, but only by a little. 

We walked back along the bay, feeling like maybe we should have missed Napier out because although it's a nice town there isn't really anything to see. Back at the hostel we started cooking our tea and did some washing. Tea for tonight was a chilli con carne which wasn't too bad but lacked the flavour they'd usually have because we didn't have any herbs or spices. I miss my kitchen back home. However, we ate our tea while watching the third of the Lord of the Rings films (the return of the king) and finished our bottle of wine we'd bought last night.