October 20th

Today was another rather frustrating day. It started in the night. It was very, very cold: cold noses, cold feet! Then we continued driving and actually wanted to stay at a motel in Napier. Napier is known as a beautiful city with a lot of Art Deco and right by the sea. We couldn't see any Art Deco while driving through. Apparently, there were no available rooms in the whole city and surrounding area. Two hotel managers independently told us that bookings had been made for this weekend a year in advance. Maybe we happened to choose a special weekend, a holiday or something?! We don't know. But the whole city was full of people. So we continued towards Wellington and ended up in a small town called Levin. Not at a motel, but again at a campground. We still have to book the ferry crossing to Picton on the internet. I wonder how that will work out...

It's also a pity that it didn't work out with Napier because there were so many restaurants here that looked like what we imagine such places to be. Really a shame, we would have liked to try them. So we went to a Vietnamese place on the way. Not bad, but the process and the atmosphere are very different from what we are used to. You go to the counter, tell them what you want to eat and drink, pay, and then find an available table. The food and drinks are then brought to you.

There are only a few photos today because we spent almost the whole day in the car.