Sand in my Shoes: There and back again...

We arrived safely in Auckland on Friday morning, having skipped Thursday when we crossed over the International Date Line. Billy and I both agreed that it was the most comfortable flight we have ever been on! We had dinner on the plane, stayed up for an hour or so, then slept for over eight hours, waking up just in time for breakfast. We landed in Auckland feeling as if we were already on New Zealand time. Which was a good thing, as we had a big day ahead of us!

We jumped on a small domestic flight to Napier/ Hastings, where the hotel arranged a driver to meet us and drive us to the resort, about an hour away. Bob was awesome and did a couple of special detours through Napier (art deco capital of New Zealand), providing us with some interesting details and in general, giving us a great tour. Napier has so many art deco buildings because in the early 1930's an earthquake devastated the region, followed by a fire started by gas explosions that were a result of the earthquake. At the time, the government hired people to rebuild the town and since the style at the time was still art deco, the new buildings reflected that style. Napier has done an incredible job of maintaining those historic buildings and the whole town was very cute and clean.

We reached The Farm at Cape Kidnappers after about a 45 drive, with Bob giving us tidbits of information along the way. Including the fact that the driveway from the entrance to the resort cost something like NZ$11 million! Having driven it, I can understand why - complicated terrain - but still!! The Farm at Cape Kidnappers has a kiwi refuge and also is famous for its gannet colonies. There are hikes throughout the property to access many of the areas of natural beauty. Billy and I tried to do as many as we could in the two days we were there!

After we checked in and settled into our room on the first day, we had a light lunch in the main dining room then set off on an adventure to hike through two of the trails. I'll try and post a trail map, but suffice it to say the trails were awesome, and quite technically challenging at times. Billy ran down all the steep parts, I picked my way down a little more gingerly, not wanting to twist an ankle on my very first day of vacation!

The hike took a little longer than we has anticipated, mainly due to some "long-cuts" that we took. But eventually we made it home in time to shower and head to the evening reception. We didn't get any photos on the Friday night unfortunately, but it was a great night with fun company and fantastic food! At about 10.30pm our travels caught up to us, though, and we called it an "early" night! :)