Friday was a day of rest and relaxation and it was Andy's birthday, so we stayed at home and did little, which is probably something we needed. After lunch we went for a walk along the boardwalk in Gisborne and almost got blown off it as high wind blew the sand off the beach straight into our faces. Ten minutes was all we could stand and the tour director was not pleased.
In the evening we went out for a meal to celebrate Andy's birthday, we walked to a restaurant and he and I ordered steaks, both medium rare, when they arrived Andy's was overdone and mine was rare. When Andy questioned this he was told both steaks had gone on at ten same time. He was offered a another steak and was told this would take ten minutes, he complained to the waitress about this delay and the next thing we knew the manager was at our table trying to soothe matters. Andy was still unhappy and after twenty minutes his steak had not arrived. Another call for the manager resulted in a free steak but when it arrived Andy was still unhappy about it, but at least he got something to eat. The end of the matter is that we won't be visiting that restaurant again.
The rest of the evening was spent walking his me and sitting and chatting, before the tour manager did some late night packing in preparation for our big trip to Wellington tomorrow.
Sometimes when you are travelling for a long time, you need days like this, resting and recuperating, reading and relaxing, recharging both body and mind. I had another look at Gisborne during our walk in the afternoon and it has some lovely Art Deco buildings hidden by plastic fascia sand twentieth century plastic signs. In places it is hard to believe you are not in America, the buildings extend only for two stories apart from four or five little high rise buildings. The beachfront has some lovely houses on it which are obviously very expensive and they have complained about the provision of the boardwalk in front of their properties, so that their access to the beach now means them crossing the boardwalk. Nimbies everywhere.