And it all went mental!!!

Day 30. Go to the places people say not to. 

Napier to Waipukurau
Daily total: 76.73km Running total: 1870.97km

Left Napier and resisted the wineries! Swung by the town of Hastings to harass the local press but to no avail. I did not harass long enough or hard enough...well I was impatient. The local reporter would be back in the afternoon. I could not wait. The road was calling. 

Hastings

Ok the pedestrianised area does have a railway track running through it...

Classy Art Deco.

Hastings also has an Art Deco styling as well and controversially, I prefer Hastings to Napier. There seemed to be much more of a community and it had the first pedestrianised town center that I have come across in NZ. The Art Gallery is worth checking out, it is free and has some pretty good exhibitions going on. Espeacially this guy, Israel Tangaroa Birch.

After Hastings and a brief distraction in North Havelock (nowt to report from there), I was back on the road. The sun decided to make an appearance after the morning drizzle.

Return of the sun...

Half hour down the road, I am greeted by this...

Shifty looking clouds and thunder...

 Then this...the wall of white, which I initially thought was rain, turned out to be way off the mark...

The wall...

Before the wall hit me, a stranger in a Yute (van) appears and hurriedly asks where I'm heading. I point to the fast approaching wall, the wind gathering strength. The guy replies that is not an option and to get in the van. I dive in as the wall hits us. Thumb sized hail stones pounding everything in sight. Visability is low. The guy then deposits me at another stranger's house to wait out the storm. One cup of tea later, it passes and leaves me with this to resume to journies in...

Sans-mental

 

Oh how I was deceived...

The campsite was beside the main road with heavy traffic as a constant stream throughout the night. It did kind of look good at night...
 

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