it's not quite Taihape...yet

Sorry it's been ages since I've blogged.

Too busy.

Where to begin...

at the beginning...

Flew to Napier Wednesday last week,

thought I'd booked a little zippy car but instead

stood in the car park clicking the

key clicky thing

in the direction of the little zippy cars

but no joy.

I was with the Boss

who was rolling his eyes

because this is what I had been upgraded to.

 How was I meant to know this is an XR6?

Cars are a foreign language to me.
However the cost of petrol is a common language across the world
and $125 to fill it was a case of blue language.

The Boss and I enjoyed a really interesting conversation

with Neils from AgResearch about mental health on farms. 
Not great, I'm afraid.

Then onto Hastings A&P Showgrounds

to host the first pilot meeting for the Rural Business Network.

(don't worry there will be more about that later).

I am so challenged when it comes to parking.

I truly loathe carparks.

That was fun doing the old networking thing with the

Hawkes Bay Chamber of Commerce

and wide eyed (non) young farmers.

Excellent feedback from the farmers

even if there was an almighty thunder storm

while we were in the marquee

overlooking the equestrian arena.

During the feedback session I ran

it was cold, cold, cold.

We could see our breath hanging in the air

as we nibbled club sandwiches

and got down to business.

We saw the farmers off,

the Boss and I went dinner with some guys from Palmerston North.

We knew them, it wasn't super random,

maybe just a little bit.

We went to some restaurant in Hastings with cold mashed potatoes.

Not good.

The next day, Thursday

not that warm in Napier.

Do you see a theme?

Stormy cold in the marquee,

cold mashed potatoes,

cool weather in the not sunny Napier.

Can you?

Wasn't actually that cold,

seriously

coming from the South Island I know about cold.

Well more than they do in the Hawkes Bay,

but not as much as Nessie in Central Otago.

I was busy in Napier though.

Bought new shoes,

found the best hot chocolate I've had in an age,

had lunch with a lush

and dinner with April.

Lunch was at Shed 2 near the port of Napier.

A marginal steak sandwich was had,

the lush supplied good conversation and interesting tidbits

and brought his dogs along.

Mostly I liked the view...

Afterwards I hid in the giant car for warmth

and watched the catch be brought in.

I was most fascinated to see how the crane

maneuvered around the park cars

including mine.

My slow and gradually warmer afternoon with nothing much to do

involved a walk along the port watching boats

and you will just have to look at the photo sideways

cause there's an error with downloading photos from my camera to laptop

And would you believe I was still late to pick up April for dinner.

Ok with the photo above that's not a surprise.

I did sneak in a blissful nap,

a totally comatose nap.

April has been exiled to Hastings

from cosmopolitan, bustling Wellington

as all others who have Masters in Library Science are exiled to small, provincial towns*.

Let's just say jobs are few and far between for those in the library sector.

April was delightful and gave up a pivotal episode of Dr Who

so I was very privileged to have her company.

I only hope she has been able to catch up with that

it sounded quite exciting

even to me a non-telly watching people.

And that was my time in Napier/Hastings.

* Provincial is entirely different to rural towns such as Leeston.