Day 147 Chilled Sunday Stroll

I got up to go on skype to Dan. I was on for quite a while and Claire had called and we arranged to go for a walk. So after a shower and some lunch. We set off for island bay to meet her for a stroll. I thought we were going for a walk round a park but we walked along the streets around where Christine used to live. We saw her old house and walked up the hill she used to walk her dog, Molly. We stopped in a coffee shop for a drink and cake, the best kind of walking this!! Once back at the cars we agreed to meet at another shop for an ice cream. The shop was near the airport and was noisy. I had mint choc chip! Yum yum! I said good bye to Claire as I won't see her again then we headed back home. We chilled at home then walked down to Margaret's for tea. We watched New Zealand's master chef as we ate. After dinner we headed home and chatted then went to bed.


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Day 146 Return to Upper Hutt

I woke up and packed everything away while I chatted to Jamie. After checking out and leaving my bags in the storage room I sat down to some breakfast. I had to go to the flight centre to get my confirmation of my Fiji trip. As I was in town I realised I didn't have any postcards from Napier so I went in search of some. I came across a farmers market and just couldn't walk passed I had to have a look. There was a really nice guy selling jams and marmalades. I tried a few and bought a fijoa one for Christine. I also chatted to a seller who had lost of cheeses. His home made feta was very tasty! And his home made yogurt. I visited the art deco centre and watched a short DVD about the reason Napier is so art deco. It was really interesting. On the way back to the hostel I picked up something for lunch. After eating and saying goodbye to Jamie I headed down the street to get the bus back to Wellington. As I waited to board a woman began to chat to me. She seemed nice and sat in front of me on the bus. I don't know why I seem to attract very interesting people! We chatted for a while and she asked what I did for a job, I told her and asked what she did. She said she was recovering from mental illness and was only seeing professionals once a month and the medications where helping. We chatted a bit longer she was going home for mothers day. I then settle back to listen to my iPod. It was a beautiful drive though hills and mountains. Unfortunately my head phones broke on the way back. First one of them stopped working so I just kept swopping the other one from side to side. The bus stopped right outside the train station so I jumped on a train, I text Christine to let her know I was on my way. She collected me from the train station and we went and go pizza for tea as it was late and we couldn't be bothered to cook. At home we settled down with a film and the pizza. I have to say I was looking forward to sleeping in a bed with an electric blanket!!

Day 145 Tour Round Napier

Today I am doing a tour round Napier with Fregs Fantastic Tours! There is just me and one other person doing it! First we went to a few nice look outs over the city, the weather wasn't very good though. Most of Napier is art deco and we saw a lot of lovely buildings, even McDonalds is art deco!! For lunch we went to the RSA. It was very good food and the place was full of ex service men and women. After a lovely roast dinner we set off to another valley and visited a few wineries. At one we tasted a red wine which was not nice, the woman then told us to try some chocolate and try the wine again. I have to say it did make it taste slight better. The next stop was a chocolate place!! But they don't make the chocolate they just shape it. On the tour plan it said cheese factory which I was excited about seeing but unfortunately it closed last week!! We went to a honey place and once again I tried about ten different kinds of honey. Ferg then took us to a famous ice cream place and bought us an ice cream each. It was very very nice! He then dropped me back at the hostel. I walked to pak n save and got potato and mince for tea and made spaghetti bolognese and had it on baked potato. I made more than I could eat, as I took it to the bin I bumped into a woman who said oh that look nice. I said she could have it as I was full and it was only going in the bin other wise. Her name was Jamie and she was from California. We chatted for ages and got on really well. It got late fast as we chatted and we eventually went to bed at around midnight.

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Day 144 International day of the Midwife

Once again I had a nice lay in. Once I got up and showered I headed to the travel agents to book my time in Fiji. I chose a package of boat tickets that would take in 6 islands. It was a lovely day and so I planned to walk up to Bluff hill to get pictures over the bay. As I walked down the main prom I saw a group of people with big signs, it looked a little like a protest. As I got a bit closer I thought some of the signs said midwife and midwives on. It is the international day of the midwife. I crossed over the road to see what was going on. It turned out to be a group of midwives doing a 5km walk for a conference/charity thing. I asked if I could join in, they were really happy for me to tag along. As we started to walk we had to take the signs with you so I grabbed one saying 'the world needs more midwives!'. It was a fun walk I chatted to lots of different midwives and they were all delighted that I had just been walking past and decided to join in. When we got to the end of the prom we stopped and had a drink. Now when I was given my glass I was told 'have a nice drink of meconium!' what?? It really looked like mec too! It wasn't thank goodness, it was a fruit juice that was green and thick but tasted quite nice. After refreshments we started to walk back to town and headed for the town hall. We watched a DVD about childbirth in Africa. I had to duck out before the end as I had an appointment to go to. It was fun to have done something for the international day of the midwife though. I went to the ocean spa and had my eyelashes tinted then went for a swim in the heated salt pools. I spent ages in them it was so nice. I had to get out because I was going to another guide meeting. On re way back I stopped to pick up some DVDs with my pictures on which I had drop off earlier. As I got back to the hostel the guide leader was there to take me. I quickly dumped my bags and we set off. It was a good meeting and I helped with the crafts for mothers day and with a couple of badges they were doing. Then back to the hostel and to bed.


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Day 143 Tour of Prison

Oh my word!! Some people have no manners! One of the girls in my room last night was leaving very early at 4am. So at 3am she got up and began to pack. This would be fine but she had everything in the most noisy plastic bags I have ever heard! Why if you are leaving so early would you not pack the night before?!? Especially if you are in a dorm room!! Right end of moan. I chatted to mum for a while then walked into town and went to the flight centre to book my trip in Fiji. I had to book a flight out of Fiji too and it was cheapest to go to the air new zealand office. I then nipped into the post office, to post Gareth's birthday card, on my way to the prison. Across the road from the prison is a garden with a lake and waterfall it looked really pretty so I walked through to take pictures. I then headed up to the prison. I had been told the tours where at 2pm but when I got there it turned out they were at 3pm but you can do an audio tour alone so I opted for that. It was a really good tour but a but scary as it took you to the place they hang people and bury people and talked about ghosts! The place was all uneven due to a few earthquakes which made it look even more spooky. I walked back to the hostel via Pak and Save to get food for tea then went back and wrote in diary. I chatted to a girl in my room for a while then climbed into bed.

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