Day 164 -Napier & drive to Lake Taupo, North Island - Wednesday 28th March 2012

We ate our breakfast to the smell of pongy eggs (I swear we're camping next to a nuclear power station) and then drove the little way into Napier town centre. Napier, known as the Art Deco town, has an abundance of low rise art deco style buildings in the main town area; the reason for this is literally the whole of the town was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 meaning that everything had to be rebuilt and the style of the time just happened to be art deco. It makes for a lovely walk around and it was a beautifully sunny day so Ad and I spent a few hours wandering about and looking in the shops. After all our walking we decided we were in need of coffee and so stopped off at one of the coffee shops and ordered the biggest mugs of steamy coffee we could find. I honestly do not know how we will ever readjust back into early morning rushed breakfasts before work, without huge mugs full of coffee, when we're back - anyway its five months off yet so let's not think about that!

Come early afternoon we started our two and a half hour drive to Lake Taupo. The scenery was as lovely as ever and the sun high in the sky and come early evening we arrived to the magnificent view of Lake Taupo and instantly liked it. To make matters even better, the Great Lake Taupo (as it likes to be known) had a free campervan parking area where we could park up for the night, right on the lake and next to the "super loo". We happily parked up and I settled down to watch the sunset with a glass of cider whilst Ad knocked up some chicken risotto with salad. Just as we were about to start eating, a Jehovah 's witness lady came over and knocked on our window; Ad opened the door and the lady proceeded to give him a little speech and leaflet on god which Ad gracefully listened to before excusing himself to finish dinner. Of all the campers in the area she picked our little one!

Fed and happy we washed up, chucked out the god leaflets and made our way to the super loo before bed whilst on the way Ad sang his new jingle "super looooo, the place you come to do a pooooo". Back in the van we settled down with our books and made our plans for the next couple of days in Taupo.