January 3

After our relatively late night, I was up at 0645 and after a cup of tea, breakfast, shower, dressing and packing, we left at 0800 and bade farewell to Rotorua. We set out to Waitomo, so we had gone from the east coast, to the centre and now were heading for the west coast.
We arrived at Waitomo at 1000 and, after parking on the other side of the road, just missed the current tour, so we had to wait for the 1030 tour. This did at least allow us to move to the collection area when the rain was light. While waiting we spoke with a family from Holland and wondered if all the Dutch have departed the Netherlands and are holidaying in New Zealand? Yet each family we spoke to have expressed surprise that so many were over here.
We then did the cave tour. There is quite a walk and then a slow and fairly short (in distance, but not in time) boat trip where we saw great glow-worm sights.
On our way out we called in at an Angora rabbit showroom (courtesy of the nurses from Townsville, who had already been there) and saw one shorn. There was one on display (and humans are not the only animals suffering from vanity) and then a bus tour called in , so another was called on to be shorn. The rabbit (and they are quite large with fur, but considerably smaller without) laid down in a small steel trough and then its front and rear paws were put into little binding straps. Then these were stretched (like a rack) and the rabbit rotated (like a spit). Then it was shorn with an ordinary (but small) shearing blade, just like a sheep. It was very interesting and I took a movie of it. The clothing was beautiful and very soft, but too expensive for us at this time.
We headed over to Napier, back on the east coast, and booked into the motel at 1600. Very friendly staff (and Internet, but limited in quantity, so I only emailed) and then down to the iSite information centre in the city. I found a parking spot and, after getting the walking and driving tour information, we did the walking tour. It was easy to see everyone else doing it because we all had similar maps and books and stopped to look at the same things. At a few places we ran into a walking tour. After (and with a large number of art deco buildings captures on film – well, digital memory card), we drove up to Bluff Hill lookout, returning past many old Art Deco homes.
We shopped at Countdown and then Pack’n’Save to get salad for Fran’s tea and took that back to the motel. Then we drove the other way and got fish, chips and potato cakes for tea and had those back at the motel. We walked to the waterfront from the motel and saw the expanse of the bay (Hawke’s Bay) and walked back past schools, churches and shops.
Once back we did some laundry. Because of the time, we had to use the motel dryer, so we had a conversation with the motel owner and his son about schooling and country/city living in New Zealand. After checking email I had some allowance left, so I then posted some pictures (only 50 MB allowed).
I summarised today’s activities on my blog, then was off to sleep about 2300.