Trip to Hawkes Bay

 We have a family Memorial to attend in Hastings this weekend, so decided to set out early and have a four day trip, instead of rushing there and back.  Our trip up was anything but rushed, due to a couple of detours and the  huge amount of orange road cones everywhere.  The first detour we encountered was close to home, when the road out of our village was closed and we went all round the streets to get back on track.  That took a little bit of time, but soon we were on our way.  

We were joined by a long stream of motor bike riders just north of Levin, and they traveled just ahead of us up and over the Saddle Road.  There was not too much wind blowing up the top as some of the wind turbines were very sluggish indeed.  Just before Dannevirke we were directed on a very long detour indeed, taking us along Top Grass Road.  We estimated this detour was about 15km long, taking us along some roads not traveled before.  

At last we rejoined SH2, and stopped for lunch at the Matamau Diner, north of Dannevirke for a coffee, to go with our lunch, something I had prepared earlier, as the saying goes.  Our caravan looked very tiny indeed, dwarfed by the huge trucks which had also stopped for lunch.

First time we have stopped here.

Then we continued on our way, meeting up with more road works, stop and go signs, and millions of road cones.  That's the way to make money, we reckon, manufacture road cones for all these miles of road works!

At last we arrived at Napier NZMCA park, this was a really slow trip indeed.

Eriksen Road Park is very roomy,  but much of the area had been roped off.  Not because of flooding, as we thought, but because areas of the lawn had been reseeded.

There was still plenty of sites available, we found ourselves one, settled down, and made a cuppa.  Yes, we needed one after the long slow trip.

Home for the next four nights

It was fish and chips from the Filter Room for dinner, they certainly are delicious.  Robin had a bit of a wait as several orders delivered by Uber Eats went out first.  

Robin is on dinner duty tonight

It will be a chilly 6 degrees tonight.  But we are tucked up tight, nice and comfy with the diesel heater keeping us warm.  I'm sure Gemma will spent the night cuddled up on the bed with us too.