No room at the inn(ings)

Hi everbody!

We're in Napier right now, which is on the east coast and is a really pretty town. It was devastated by an earthquake in 1931 and was re-built from scratch in the early thirties, the majority of it in Art Deco style. Its gorgeously sunny today so we're having a nice relaxing wander around.

On the journey up here yesterday we heard on the radio that the One Day International between England and NZ was in progress in Napier. I was hoping that we could get here in time to find somewhere to stay and then pop along for the last couple of hours of the match. How wrong I was! We spent a fruitless hour trying to find somewhere to stay, and even visited neighbouring towns looking for somewhere. One motel operator told us that because of the cricket the nearest available beds were in Taupo, a two hour drive away! We decided that our only option was to sleep in the car, and thought that we might as well do so in a camp-site so we'd have access to showers etc. We rolled up at the Hastings holiday camp, and were over-joyed to find that they had a cabin available! It even had a little TV in it, so we could meet our Wednesday night rendezvous with Lost! Needless to say we didn't see the cricket - a shame as it sounded like a great game.

Tomorrow we're heading west towards the volcanoes and lakes on the Taupo region. I'm hoping to go sky-diving there, but will see if I have the nerve or not!

We've uploaded a few photos from Wellington (including one of me in elf ears!) - see the North Island link on the right. We had a really nice time in the city. Although its not as stunning as Sydney it had a really nice feel to it. We had a drive round the "Wellywood" studios but didn't see anyone famous, although we did have one evening meal in Viggo Mortensen's favourite restaurant!