Today’s journey began just after 9am as we left Napier and headed towards Hastings. It is only a 22 minute drive from Napier, and a twin city to it, with both based around wineries and agriculture. It is without the Art Deco flair though, so after a quick scenic tour of the town centre, we travelled on.

Today was always planned to be our biggest driving day, as our goal is to just get to Wellington. The result is a four hour bus ride 😳, stopping to stretch our legs at a little park (ie. boys and Belle play frisbee*) along the way and again for lunch at Palmerston North. This town appears to be a regional centre, but we couldn’t find much to look at (apart from a NZ rugby museum), so grabbed some KFC for lunch and continued on.

(Views from our bus window on our long drive)

We met our Airbnb hosts at their home in Lower Hutt, Wellington. She reminded us a lot of a school mum, Janine Vos, and they were both absolutely lovely, and left straight after greeting us and giving us a quick tour. The house is called The Castle, spread over five levels (and our most expensive accommodation on the trip 😉). It is beautiful with excellent views, such as this from my bedroom window.

We spent the afternoon exploring and enjoying the house, and then headed to Petone for dinner on our hosts’ recommendation. The restaurant they suggested was family friendly was only open for dinner on weekends (Seashore Cabaret), so we explored Jackson St which was full of restaurants, but due to not booking in advance and being a party of 13, the only place that could house and feed us was Lone Star again. Our waitress was so lovely and left us a nice little note on our bill (which she called a “summary”), so we left her a tip and returned to The Castle for the evening. We explore Wellington CBD tomorrow.

* Ross found these little rubber discs in a pack of 5 online somewhere, and thought our ball-sports-crazy children (being Tim, Cooper and Sam mainly) would appreciate having them on the trip. Genius move – they have been a welcome distraction in the absence of actual balls, easy to carry, and fun! And we’ve only lost one so far…..(it’s in a roof gutter at Te Puia, Rotorua).