Sun Kicks and Trail Mix

Dearest Friends and Fam,
I write you from sunny Napier, a little town in Hawkes Bay on the North Island known for its wine country and art deco architecture.
On Thursday we took a three hour ferry ride from sunny happy Picton to rainy dreary Wellington, the capital of this here kiwi land. Danielle drove us off the ferry into the heart of the city. It was a bit overwhelming, the sort of feeling that San Francisco has on people who don’t know where they are going, Megan and I maps in hand, Danielly trying to follow our directions, one way streets, streets that aren’t labeled, round-abouts, staying on the left side of road, no parking, etc…
But we navigated our way to the downtown natural foods store, Commonsense Organics (thank you Lonely Planet). It was so exciting to go to a good grocery store. As most of you probably already know, I have a soft spot in my heart for grocery stores with good ethics. This one, small and simple as it was, made me smile. We filled up on oats, honey from Kaikoura, cheddar cheese, free range eggs, curry spices, coconut milk, black beans and veges--the essentials--and jumped back in the Comm in search of a hostel for the night.
All the Welly hostels were pretty packed for the night, so we had to split up into different dorms. We then squeezed ourselves into the kitchen lineup and managed to sautee our white onions and mushrooms, scramble our eggs, and make breakfast burritos for dinner, no salsa though, and a far cry from Linnaea’s.
I don’t know if we’ve written about this yet, but food is darn expensive here. The grocery store is doable, but going out is a big deal. So, what ends up happening is that we’re never full. We make great breakfasts with our jam-packed oatmeal goodness; we eat a pretty sad lunch usually consisting of apples, cheese, maybe peanut butter, maybe bread; and then around eight we make something like mini burritos--always yummy but always small. All to say, is that we dream of Trader Joe’s care packages, and if you come and visit (which you should!!!), you should bring some raw trail mix, raw almonds, salsa, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and anything else you can think of--but if we could ask for anything it would be endless bags of trail mix and dried fruit--these are the things we dream of at night. (As I write this, across the table Danielle is discussing how her jeans are getting too big for her…we’re dwindling away!!! Just kidding..but seriously, bring the trail mix).
Okay, so, back to Wellington. Basically we arrived in a rainstorm. That night we could be spotted in our rain shells and rolled up jeans running from awning to awning. We found shelter in an Irish Pub before doing the same routine back to our humble accommodation.
The next morning Wellington looked the same, rivers for roads and cloudy skies. This, plus the fact that none of the streets connect and parking is horrid, driving Connie was real stressful. We had heard from our friend Sandra from Guerilla Café, Berkeley CA, that Wellington was awesome. She had lived there for a year and was super excited that we were going to her beloved town. So, we had high hopes for this city and the rain and the smelly hostel were really cramping our style. Therefore, after searching FOREVER for parking we decided to do what any Californian would do, and that is follow the sun, and get out of town. Wellington will be there for us to explore with Christy a month from now when we head back to the South. So, we canceled our next hostel reservation, grabbed a bagel and a couple of lattes, pulled out three maps, and headed out of town.
So here we are, in lovely Napier. She is a sunny 22 degrees Celsius ( a far cry from the 1 degree in Dunedin). We have traded our baselayer-under-the-jeans fad for tank tops and cut offs, and we are happy.
The owner of Groove Kitchen Espresso (a hip little café that has two turntables built into the counter to the left of the expresso machine) clued us into a free campground on the beach only fifteen minutes south of town.

After spending the afternoon looking for non existent swell, a rock climbing wall, the local pool, eating at an Indian food festival, and sipping a Chimay at a swanky tapas bar on the harbor, we cruised down the beach in search of our home for the night. It was easy to find. Our first spot turned out to be a giant mud puddle, which Megan found out the hard way for us. After rinsing off in the ocean, Megan hopped back in the car and we found a dryer spot. We pulled the boards out of the back of good ole Connie, unrolled our sleeping bags and thermarests, and slept like babes.
This morning we woke up and transformed our sleeping quarters into a regular gourmet kitchen. We used our handy dandy camp stove for the first time, French pressed some coffee, and made some LEGIT oatmeal, all of which we leisurely sipped and ate on the pebbly beach.
So good.

Now, our tentative plan for the day is to head to the local pool (which is incredible, heated, salt water, and right on the beach), catch up on some internet (check), and stay the night at a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of Danielle’s.
Tomorrow, D is off to meeting with our hosts, and Megan and I are headed to the renowned Hastings’ farmers market to stock up on some fresh veges for the camping trips planned for the next week. And then on our way back to Napier we are stopping at my brother Jubal’s old friends Sarah and Steve‘s house, and we are having tea with them and their three kiddos, should be good fun.
This week we should be camping at a couple of spots a little north of here and eventually making our way to the Mahia Penninsula. Our New Zealand surf guide describes it like this: “if you could design the perfect geographic set up for a surf area it would closely resemble the Mahia Penninsula.” Pretty exciting… (thanks Jub for the tips and the book, as Danielle reads it religiously).
Whew! That was long! But needed, since internet for us is few and far between these days.

Lots of love and more to come!!!