Friday Aug. 8 to Wednesday August 13 in Hawks Bay

We arrived in Hawk's Bay Friday, August 8 and thus I haven't posted in 5 days. Driving from the Himatangi Beach on the West coast to the Napier on the East coast took 2 hours and 50 minutes. But once we entered Hawk's Bay game was on. As we draw closer, Nicki's tour guide antenna was on high radar. First stop was to have dinner with the Leyser's house for dinner. That was fun catching up with their family and meeting their two dogs. Every chance to see some dogs in light of missing our two pups. Driving in we saw the first look at Te Mata peak.

Te Mata Peak can be seen from most of Hawks Bay. If you look closely, you can see the sleeping giant. Next to the giants head you can see the big bite of the mountain that the giant bit off.

Saturday we spent the day seeing the sights in Hastings. After a nice trip to the library, we went to Warren's bakery. For many years when Nicki was 12-13 she had a bread delivery job at Warren's. The bakery was actually closed and now in it's place is the Cranky Chicken. It was good chicken too as we heard the stories of Nicki growing up. Then we went to the park Nicki grew up in, only this modern play equipment was not what she used growing up.

There were some massive Cedar trees in this park. Nicki said these trees looked this big 25 years ago. Once trees are this age, I guess a couple decades are a drop in a bucket. Nicki said she would climb this tree when she was young just like Rusty here.

This street was actually named after the Woodfield's. Andy had worked with the developer and thus got a street named after him!

Saturday night we finished off the night at the Bisley's. This was a family that Nicki grew up with. They even pulled out some photo's of the Woodfield's growing up. 

Sunday was such a great day meeting friends of old and making new friends from Riverbend Church. The whole day was spent at church in the morning, eating at an after church lunch, and then back to church for the evening service. A special couple we spent a long time talking to was Brittney and Isaiah. The are actually going to be moving to the states this coming year, so we might be able to spend more time with them on stateside.

Monday we continued to adventure to place's Nicki grew up seeing. This first stop was a Mauri defense site that dates back to the 1500's.

Later in the afternoon we to Bluff Hill in Napier. We could look up the coast to see the smoke stacks and had a great view of the port loading logs on a boat.

Monday Night we had dinner with Liz and Murrey Bensen. Their daughter Wendy and the Campbell family also came. It was a full night of playing games. Little did we now after connecting so well with their family, we basically spent the rest of the week with them.

Tuesday was a little rainy, but that didn't stop us from having a hike on Te Mata peak. Us boys did the red trail all the way around. Most others took the blur trail up and took the road back. The trails were pretty slippery.

Tuesday night we got to have dinner with cousins! The Michell family. This was another great game night with older kids this time. You can see the similarities in looks with Thad and their oldest as a child in this picture.

Wednesday was pretty chill. Nicki went to the women's meeting. Daddy and the kiddos played with the Campbell kids and others a nice game of Ultimate frisbee. That was a good time introducing the game to them. They picked it up really well. Later in the day we did a little shopping and stopped at the Bandit dealership! This is actually the same as my chipper and about the same price to what I bought mine.

In the afternoon we hung out at the Campbells and ended up feeling a 4.5  earthquake! This is a somewhat normal occurrence for NZ, but a first for our children. We will finish tonight with more of Nicki's friends Andria and Chris at a restaurant called Off the Track.

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