We left Wellington and found our way to the home of Jim Xxx, the man who Dona originally learned wood-turning from. He is no longer giving lessons, but gracefully showed us around his shop, talked to Dona about some things she was having trouble with, and demonstrated some of the things he was talking about. In short, he gave her a mini- private lesson. It was a treat to watch him work; things just effortlessly appeared under his hands.
Then we headed up the east coast to Hastings. We spent a lot of time inquiring around trying to find another wood-turning related business, which we finally did. Dona wanted to buy another tip for a particular tool she had, made by xxx. We had addresses that didn't exist, phone numbers that were disconnected, and all sorts of conflicting information when we inquired around. A google-earth/maps search showed one of the addresses to be what looked like a residence on the beach, and this turned out to be the right place -- the man had a small manufacturing business set up in his garage. It was impressive, and they have some pretty cool tools. We bought more than we intended, no big surprise there. I thought the coolest tool was one which allowed you to make four bowls out of one bowl blank, sort of like nesting Russian dolls.
Having finished our wood-turning related quests, we haeded down the beach a bit more nad got one of the last spots at a campground on Hawkes Bay.
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| Hawkes Bay Camp |
We had hoped to get out to a gannet colony on the tip of the peninsula, but it was too late to hike the 5 km and the tide would have stranded us. So we contented ourselves with a walk on the beach. The campground included a number of small cottages; some of them were lit up like Christmas in the evening.
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| Hawkes Bay Fishing | Cabin Lights |
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| Hawkes Bay | |
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| Black Shag (Phalacrocorax Carbo)
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The next day we met up in Napier for lunch at the Mission Winery, the oldest winery in New Zealand, with another old research buddy of Dona's, Charlie Xxx and his wife Maryanne. The winery is the "birthplace of New Zealand wine," and we can vouch for its being excellent. We had an incredibly good lunch, lamb as usual for us in New Zealand when we have the chance, with an outrageous Dark Chocolate Parcel for dessert.
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| Mission Winery |
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| Charlie, Dona, Maryann, Gary | Dona and Dessert |
As had already happened many times on this trip, we were being plagued by the weather. Our plan had been to head to Tongariro National Park so I could hike the Tongariro Crossing, but the weather report said rain. There was no point in doing the hike without the view from my perspective, so we headed to the Whanganui River to explore it a little.
This page last updated on 2016-11-29.
