My Hawkes Bay Road Trip

I had a great first road trip exploring New Zealand!  I headed to the Hawkes Bay area on the east side of the north island. 

I started off my journey driving through some very rugged and beautiful countryside.  The road I took was nicknamed “the Gentle Annie” (aka the Taihape-Napier Rd), and it was incredibly curvy through the Ruahine and Kaweka ranges.  I thought of my dad and cousin Ed as I drove my little red Toyota Corolla; I bet they’d have loved to be driving their motorcycles on this road!

Yup, snapped this one while I was driving...I passed ~2 people in two hours, so I felt like it was pretty safe!

I left Friday night after work and headed to my hostel.  This was my first true hostel experience; an all-female dorm-style room.   I’ve stayed in a hostel once before in Norway, but  it was so nice that I don’t count it; it was more like a hotel. 

When I arrived at the hostel after about 3 hours on the road, it was almost dark.  I picked my bunk and got settled in.  I said a few timid hellos, hoping these women were nice and weren’t planning to steal all my stuff.  The first turned out to be a dairy farm girl from England, and we’re hopefully going to get together again!   She has a work visa for Australia and is just traveling through New Zealand before moving there.

I was proud after I picked up an American accent on the second girl I visited with.  When I first arrived in this country, I was so overwhelmed by all the newness that accents all blended together.  I couldn’t tell an American one from a New Zealand one!  I discovered that Anne was from Maine, and her accent was surprisingly similar to mine (probably why I picked it out so quick!).   She asked me where I was from, and I said Wisconsin.  She asked where, and I said “around Madison.”  Her response?  “Oh, like Verona?”

SERIOUSLY?????????

I show up for my first hostel experience all alone, fearing for my belongings, and this chick from Maine knows my hometown??  I was so shocked, I asked “How do you know that?” in a very accusatory “you read my mind or stalked me from the States” kind of way.   As it turns out, she’s a student at St Olaf college in Minnesota, and her best friend there happens to be from Verona.   She recently visited her friend’s family and checked out Madison.  Too crazy!

Our wild connection led us to spend the next day together, and it was incredible to have company!

My art deco-style hostel in Napier.  Napier is known as the "Art Deco Capital of the World"  The whole town was rebuilt in this style after a devastating earthquake in 1931.