Labour Day weekend - Day 3

Day three of our weekend started with us enjoying a nice big sleep-in as the kids slept in until 8am (although Joanna had woken up during the early hours of the morning requiring some muti for whatever reason). We all enjoyed some Pronutro for brekky again, this time outside in some warm sunshine :) (the weather had greatly improved).
After packing all our stuff back into the car we took a drive up Bluff Hill (in Napier), and then drove up Te Mata Peak again (that's what Ben is on top of in the photo). Unlike the previous day, the weather was absolutely beautiful up the top! Nice and sunny, no wind, blue skies. There was plenty of snow on the Kaweka Range... probably from the day before. Because the weather was so nice up the top, we hung around for a while and Ben made friends with a couple of other young children (siblings) so was entertained talking to them which meant we got to sit and relax for a while.
We then visited one of the wineries that had been closed the day before, Te Mata Estate. It was dead quiet especially after always having other people around at the wineries we went to the day before. We did find a nice red (something which had been alluding us, even though Hawke's Bay is supposed to be known especially for it's Cab Sav), it was a variety we have never heard of - had a very summery feel to it.
As the weather was so great we decided we would gather supplies to have a picnic for lunch down along the beach. So we stopped at the Te Mata Cheese Factory and bought some creamy blue cheese (after I had tasted 3 different Bries and 3 different Blues - it was $2 for tasting which was refunded on purchase and I knew I was going to be purchasing something, so I thought it made sense to try them out for taste and then decide on something, instead of just trying to decide based on the description on the packaging), then went to the supermarket and picked up some ham and bread rolls. Then, taking a scenic road along the river, we ended up finding a nice grassy spot at the beach on the coast at Te Awanga to relax and soak up some sunshine.
It was then time to start the long drive back... stop at Waipunga Falls to wriggle again... arriving at Taupo mid/late afternoon (the 1/2way point for the drive). We went and visited the Craters of the Moon, a thermal area operated by the Department of Conservation. According to our Lonely Planet (the essential travel companion - that gave us quite a few good suggestions for things to do, places to eat and places to stay back in 2006 and has been dusted off now) this was supposed to be a free activity (well it obviously was at the time it was published), well, now it costs $5/adult, $2/child (5-12yrs) or $12 for family. Anyway, we had to go in as we had been telling Ben about it on the drive and he was raring to go. It wasn't overly exciting, but it did fill in the time before dinner, which was fish and chips on shores of Lake Taupo. Then ice creams at Maccas, with a real Douglas DC3 plane in the playground :)
We started to head home again, still enjoying the fabulous weather and making comments that it felt like summer and got home at 9:30pm.



We really enjoyed the weekend away and felt like we had been away for longer than just 3 days (in a good way). We now have to decide on the destination/activities for the next long weekend we will be around for - Waitangi Day, at the end of January (is kind of like the NZ equivalent of Australia Day)