Long drive

Most of today was spent driving...from the national park to Napier.  Before we left, we said goodbye to the resident farm animals that had free range of the hostel property, the goat, sheep, and Daisy the pig (who terrified me).

Looking at the map (as official navigator), there were two ways to get to Napier.  One way had us taking major roads north for a while then cutting east towards the coast.  The other way had us taking a direct road east, that was marked on the map as 'difficult'.  Seeing as the other way looked shorter, I opted for the difficult road.

   

Before getting to the difficult part, the first portion of the drive drove us out of the national park, with the volcanic range alongside us, for a stop in Ohakune.  I thought I had recognized this town as the first space on our NZ Monopoly board, known for it's giant carrot statue (another great road trip stop).  Bret couldn't remember the name of the town either, so we searched for the carrot with no luck.  After driving out of the town and back on the road, we spotted it!  We jumped out of the car for a few pictures and journeyed on.

The difficult road turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  The road was one of the most picturesque roads we've been on in New Zealand, like driving through a postcard.  The roads wound through the beautiful autumn leaf-changing tiny towns, up into the sloping green sheep-dotted hills, and through native NZ bush.  Because of the winding road conditions, yet again, it made for a rather slow journey.  Halfway through, the road turns to just gravel, one lane, cut into the dense bush on the mountainside.  Our pace was slowed even more significantly as our tiny car slowly climbed and descended the hills.  Fortunately, the roadtrip mix-cd we made, that skipped violently in the old cd player, suddenly worked perfectly on the bumpy roads (go figure), so we were able to enjoy the scenery with a NZ soundtrack.

 

funny sign!

   

The shorter distance, we figured, actually took longer than the longer distance on major roads would have taken.  But we arrived in Napier safe and sound, minds full of beautiful New Zealand landscape.