From Taupo to Wellington - Day 9

In Taupo and Napier, there were supermarkets that were open until 10 pm, even on Sundays. In Tairua, on the other hand, the shop was closed after 7 pm. Opening hours and working hours here in New Zealand are a bit of an issue. They are comparable to those in Norway. Unlike supermarkets, practically every store opens at 8 am or even 7 am, but closes at 4 pm or at the latest at 5 pm. Only a few have longer opening hours. The cafés also close at 4 pm, at the best coffee time! Many restaurants open at 5 pm. Jörg suspects that New Zealanders have two jobs, in the stores that are open until 4 pm and in the ones that are open in the evening ;-))) Perhaps the opening hours are correlated with the happiness indicator. The happier the population is, the shorter the opening hours, or vice versa.... We wish the New Zealanders and of course the Norwegians every minute of leisure time, but as tourists, we would like to have a piece of cake and a cappuccino at 4:30 pm or would like to visit the souvenir shop around the corner or simply look at a museum (from the inside)... But maybe we are just too poorly organized or sleep too long... :-D

After visiting many viewpoints and a total of 6 hours of driving, we arrived at our accommodation in Wellington at around 9 pm; a small accommodation on Mount Victoria.