Today we drove from Napier to Wellington, about a 4 hour drive across New Zealand. Early in the drive Ms. Garmin tried to trick us into going the short way instead of the best highway, but we caught her in time, and followed the road signs instead. We stopped and got a good map so we could keep an eye on her directions. She later on got us to go the short way (no. 57, and then no.1) as opposed to the long way the road was signed (no.2). We were past the turn before we noticed so carried on. Except for the first 8 km through a pass, with 100 (at least) hairpin turns on a cliff side road with a river far below the road was fine. And we were on the left inner side behind a huge truck, which had two advantages to us - it kept Dave down to a reasonable speed and it kept all the cars on the outer lane well out in their lane. In any case, the drive was scenic! When we got to number 1 the drive was largely down the seacoast. Also scenic, particularly on this rather windy day. There were huge waves crashing on the rocks.We ended up passing through the town where Dave has golf booked on Tuesday, so stopped off the visit the Paraparaumu links golf course. We drove down to the beach first (photo) and then went to the golf course. If the wind is still as high as today Dave will skip his game, but it is a definite links course which would be interesting to play.
After checking into our hotel we went for a very late lunch (it was about 4:30), but after a pint of dark beer (Leffe brun) and hearty starters we were too full to carry on to the main course. The food was excellent so we decided that we'll eat it tomorrow! There was a film crew on the block filming some Bollywood movie, though the locals couldn't figure out how a Wellington street will fit into the plot of a Bollywood movie. They figure it will never be shown here so they will never find out.
