Napier to Beth
Apparently we didn't have too far to travel today and therefore we had a fairly leisurely start. We drove into Napier and went up Napier Hill to look down on the town. We did get a spectacular view of the harbour and the container port and watched a train full of logs arrive. After this we drove down to the town and wandered around the shops for a while looking mainly in second hand shops for a waterproof coat for Andy. We did buy some rolls for lunch and then made our way out of Napier heading for the Greenfield's shopping centre where we had been assured there was a very good sewing shop.
This was important as the expedition manager had decided that she wanted to do some cross stitch to while the hours away. The next hour was spent looking for a suitable cross stitch pattern, which we eventually found.
By this time we needed somewhere for lunch and found a suitable picnic table near a river. This was a delightful spot that was only spoilt by the driving rain and the cold wind. Again I was put in a dangerous situation as this was a tsunami flood area and there were warnings all over the place. Andy's put the car at ninety degrees to the table to stop the wind and we all sat huddled up eating our sandwiches.
As you can imagine this was a fairly quick lunch stop and we headed off to Hastings where we had a good look around the shops in the rain. What sort of town is it that has hanging baskets that a six foot man can walk into?  The flowers were very pretty but also quite dangerous for tall people.
More second hand shops were dutifully investigated and no waterproof was found.
We did spend some time in a hunting and fishing shop where Andy thoroughly inspected their stock of fishing gear.
After Hastings we set off to Waipukurau to see Sally's sister, Beth, who was looking after her grandchildren . At Waipukarau we visited yet another second hand shop which was not a second hand shop at all, we felt it had been represented as the "best second hand shop in NZ".
Beth had had a hard day teaching and when her daughter Rachel came home, we handed over child are responsibilities to her and headed off to Beth's house at Flemington about fifteen kilometres away.
We had a really pleasant evening with Beth and her husband Rex before heading off to bed.