After leaving Taupo we headed across to the East coast to a place called Hawkes Bay which is where Ian and Chris live. The route across to Hawkes Bay went through mountains and beautiful scenery including 2 waterfalls which was a nice to have break from the drive. We met up with Ian and Chris again in Napier and we went Ta Mata Peak and Bluff Hill which had beautiful views of the surrounding wineries, mountains and rivers. On the evening we stayed at Ian and Chris' house in Waipukarou where we were treated to the luxury of barbequed Grouper and then we had a relaxing glass of Hawkes Bay's finest wine in the outside spa, heaven!

The next day we had a drive around the local area and we couldn't believe the amount of space there is in New Zealand most houses appear to have a lot of land and amazing views from every window. New Zealand's population is around 4.4 million therefore a lot of space to build houses in brilliant locations for a lot less than we would have to pay for a house in the UK! We visited Ian and Chris' Amcal Pharmacy in the town centre and managed to burn all of our photos on to disc which we had been trying to do for the last 6 weeks in SA but failed miserably due to their ridiculously slow internet and also had fun making some Kodak Christmas cards to send home! In the afternoon we went on a 45 minute helicopter ride up the coast of Hawke's Bay. There is really no better way to see the local area than this! Ian had won the helicopter ride in a charity auction and his friend managed to fit us in on the afternoon. It was a fantastic trip and a really brilliant surprise that they had set up for our visit.

After 3 nights with the "Sharpe's" sadly we had to move on as we were catching a ferry to the South Island the next afternoon. We had a brilliant time at Taupo and Hawke's Bay and we were spoilt with much needed luxury for a few days! Reality beckoned!