On the road again

This is a late posting.

We were up early as we wanted to get on the road.  We had breakfast, packed everything into the car, said our tearful goodbyes to my sister and brother-in-law, then set off to travel as far as Taupo and hopefully on to Napier.  We made good progress, especially as there’s a new stretch of motorway that completely cuts out Hamilton.  We stopped for lunch in Tirau.  The usual café we go to wasn’t open so we went to another one, which was extremely busy.  We chatted to other customers while we waited for our food to be heated.  After lunch we set off on the road south.  We wouldn’t have liked to be going north as the traffic was really built up with holidaymakers returning to Auckland after the Bank Holiday Weekend.  When we arrived at the intersection where we had to make a decision whether to continue or not, the weather was reasonable and the Napier-Taupo Road was open, so we continued on our way.  The closer we got to Napier we could start to see the damage wrought by Cyclone Gabriel.  On the last 30 to 40 kilometres we had two Stop/Go areas and one controlled by lights.  The devastation got worse and it was heartbreaking to see orchards and vineyards completely destroyed and houses and cars smashed and filled with silt.  How on earth do people recover from such devastation - both emotionally and financially?  It was a very emotional part of the journey.  We duly arrived at our friend’s house in Napier, brought our bags in, watched some sport on TV and suggested we take him for dinner at the Thai restaurant down the road.  We had a good meal but somehow he managed to pay, which wasn’t supposed to happen.

We returned home and relaxed by playing games on our iPads.  When I realised I was falling asleep I decided it was time for bed.

This is a new addition to our friend’s garden.