Good morning, sir. What is your name and would you care to blow into this bag? It’s 9.30 in the morning and we are picking up Jo. She spent the New Year at a fabulous house on the beach owned by the parents of one of her friend’s parents. Note the shades – it was a good evening by all accounts!
Anyway, the police were setting up a roadblock to stop everyone coming back from the beach that morning, so I didn’t feel picked on (and was clear).
And speaking of police, one of the many things we’ve learned is that when they say zero tolerance they really mean it. The national speed limit is only around 60mph and absolutely everyone sticks to it. When we were speaking to our hosts in Napier the lady had got a ticket for doing 52 (km ph) in a 50 zone. And we know about what they think of folks cutting corners ….
So we have driven very very carefully, and whilst seeing lots of police cars, have avoided their attention (so far).
So today it’s off to Rotura (a smelly place, but more of that tomorrow). For now, we stop to get some fruit
and then head off to Taupo for a stop en-route. Sometimes you think you don’t really get a place, and this is one of those days. All the books say it is fabulous, but it was New Year’s Day so very busy, and we never really understood it.
We went on a short walk to find the famous waterfalls (here’s the start – pretty tame as NZ walking goes) but the 2.8kms defeated us (it was very hot – not sure we’ll be getting the sympathy vote from those in the UK), so we thought we would drive to the falls instead. Couldn’t find them!
We did find the natives bathing – strong currents apparently, so you can’t get far in to the river.
And then off to Rotura. Mikey the pig was very friendly.
And if that’s how a bad day looks, I think we’re doing pretty well.