Max's 2nd Birthday - camping in Napier

The Easter weekend also happened to be our little man's 2nd Birthday. Can you believe that? Max has been with us, enriching our lives (!) for 2 full years. Where has the time gone??
Thinking back over the last 24 months it has been a roller coaster and a half. Looks something like this;

Knock extension down (54 Churchill Crescent), Max born, home is a building site, Scout Centenary celebrations, camping on Brownsea, Max first night under canvas, home is still a building site, new extension finished (6 months), kitchen in, baby cries, baby eats, baby sleeps, baby uses a million nappies, Max to nursey, Kate back to work, work gets busy, trips abroad, Holidays to Oban, Egypt and Portugal, NZ opportunity arrives, interview, successful, pack house up, live in empty house, leave a very happy work place, travel half way around the world, start work, find home, stuff arrives, Max is 2...

Phew! Let's hope that the next 2 years provides as much excitement...

So, taking advantage of the double bank holiday we decided to head to the East coast and Napier for a camping weekend with Di and Bob who live in Auckland. Kate & Di go a long way back to Hampshire Scouts and expeditions with HSX. When we planned to move to NZ we didn't know that Di was already here so it was a nice surprise when her and Bob met us when we first arrived.

Anyway, Bob and Di have friends who live in Te Awanga, just south of Napier, so we agreed to head over there for a camping weekend; 1 night is Steve & Ella's garden and 2 nights just north of Napier at Bay View.

On Friday morning we loaded up the Scoobie with camping gear and headed onto State Highway 1...along with everyone else! 6.5km into the trip we stopped and over the next 90 minutes we travelled 36 km until the single lane "danger road" up the coast which has 20km of no overtaking finished. I also managed to collect my first ever speeding ticket; overtaking to cars insisting on doing 85kmph in the 100kmph limit (max. speed on any NZ road) once I got to one of the few passing lanes available. A very friendly officer of the law was waiting at the top of the passing lane who zapped me doing 117kmph post-overtake. Apparently I was taking too long to drop my speed back down to 100kmh. Nice...NOT! That's my first ticket EVER. Thank you Mr. NZ Cop Guy...

Anyway, we finally got underway and after a stop for lunch we arrived in Te Awanga at 4pm. Phew!

We set up camp in the garden and then headed into Napier to make use of the hot pools at Ocean Spa - they heat sea water to a variety of temperatures in a number of pools and you sit in the open air chilling out. Max had a brilliant time bobbing about, getting wet, being thrown between Kate & I. He is becoming very confident in the water which is great to see.

After drying off we all went for dinner in town so got home warm and full and crashed and burned.

Saturday 11th April was of course Max's 2nd Birthday. He woke after an OK night sleeping in our Mountain Hardware 3-person (politically correct!) tent.


For a small chap he managed to take up a lot of space!

After getting dressed to much 'Happy Birthday to you' Max couldn't decide if this was going to be a good day or not...


Grumpy Max...

Happy Max!

We headed out into the morning Napier sunshine to cook breakfast. Part of our preparations for the weekend was to re-stock some of the camping kit that we hadn't brought with us, including a gas bottle. Kate had been out and bought a cylinder and new regulator. When I packed the gas bottle I thought it was a little light but in the haze of Friday morning didn't think too much about that. On Saturday morning I wish I had done as the gas bottle was empty!

In NZ you buy your gas bottle and fill it with LPG at pretty much any petrol station.

Luckily Di & Bob had a spare so our bacon was cooked on a good old camping gaz stove. Oh the memories of Scout camps flooded back...

I'm sure that this goes on here...


Oh this is very civilised!

There's even a hole for my cup!

Di: "look at my lovely bacon!"

After breakfast we broke camp and headed off to the Bay View Snapper campsite just north of Napier. How impressed were we!? The campsite was very well laid out and the pitch we were given had some good shade with plenty of room. We were a stones throw from the Pacific ocean too which was amazing. We heard breaking waves all night - it was actually quite therapeutic.

After getting set up we got the Birthday cake out! Kate had made chocolate cake on Thursday during the day as Max was out and I turned it into 'James the Red Engine' (there wasn't blue food colouring so Thomas was out of the question) on Thursday evening. The wheels were mint cream chocolate covered biscuits which went down very well indeed.

Happy Birthday Max!

Blow the candles out - make a wish!

James - left hand view

James - right hand view

Of course there was lots of driving about done over the course of the weekend. We did however have 2 very willing passengers. Oakley thought it was great - the boot was full so he got to travel on the back seat. We never had any issues getting him in the car!

I like this! Can it become the norm please?

Max on the other hand wants to be up front rather than in the back.

He already seems to know what all of the buttons are for; a full systems check and diagnostics have to be run before you drive off in order to reset everything that he has fiddled with! It took me over 10 minutes to find the switch he had flicked which was keeping the parking lights on. In the end I spotted a switch on the top of the steering wheel - the parking lights! It's probably a bad thing that the driving age is so low here as Max will certainly be on the roads as soon as he can.

I love the car!

The beach over the dune; 60 seconds from our camp pitch, was amazing. Rather than sand it was made up of black pebbles. Being on the East coast, when you look out to sea you are looking towards the west coast of South America.

Bay View beach looking North

Bay View beach looking South - towards Napier

Shiny black pebbles - you'd pay a fortune for a tonne of these for your garden in the UK!

Despite the breakers being rather large, Max insisted on paddling - he loves getting his feet wet in the sea. Oakley tried to have a swim but after a couple of full dunkings he decided that retreat when his ball was swept back on the wave rather than diving through the surf was the best idea. Only one tennis ball was lost this way so that wasn't too bad.

Next stop, Chile, South America

Posh dog, posh beach, posh sea

These pebbles feel great!

On the Sunday we hooked up with Di, Bob, Steve and Ella and headed off to Ocean Beach, a little further south of Napier. On the way they took us to see the local waterfall.

Oakley thought he was in heaven! He managed to get a fresh water swim in with his new friend Jack.

The waterfall; where the water falls

Oakley and Jack

Ocean Beach was amazing; golden sands for miles and miles. The sea breaks nicely all along the coast so was great for a spot of beginner surfing or boogie boarding. Fortunately the winds were really light, but that did prevent the kite flying - given up as a bad job after a couple of attempts. Not even enough breeze to get a 6' Flexifoil in the air.

We had a picnic and did some swimming. Max took the chance to have another paddle in another part of the Pacific Ocean! The weather was glorious and despite that, the beach was empty - that's New Zealand for you!

Ocean Beach - looking North

Ocean Beach looking South - holiday baches for rent make up for the lack of camping

Ocean Beach; Napier

On the way home we stopped off at a local winery as they were having an open day with a bit of music. Unfortunately we had to leave after a glass of wine as Max was shattered and we had to get back to feed him and prevent the hunger gremlin from appearing! Later that evening we headed back to Ocean Spa for another evening soak. Quite a brilliant day.

On Monday we broke camp and headed home along State Highway 2, slightly further to travel but it avoided the traffic lights on SH1 which caused so much grief on Friday morning. We left the site at 11am - ahead of the other Bank Holiday traffic - with 2 very tired boys in the back!

The fallout of a very busy Birthday weekend!

It was an excellent weekend and great to head a bit further away from home. It felt as if the exploration of our new home had begun. Can't wait for the next opportunity to head out again.

Thanks for reading - this Saturday is Anzac Day and on Sunday we are helping with the Mana Marina clear-up; I will be under the water and Kate & Max will be at the beach. Next update after that.

We hope you are all well and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Love from us all. x