We leave Napier around 9am but first I take a walk on the Boardwalk in front of our apartment. It's a beautiful morning with lots of swimmers out and the sun rise was glorious around 7am. You can see for miles but the sand at the beach is grey and course nearly pebble like.

Once packed we are on the road and the scenery is rolling hills covered in lush green grass with a sprinkling of sheep or cattle, There are a few large town we pass through, Danniberke, Masterton where we stopped for lunch and Greytown looked very pretty and probably the place to stop in the future for lunch. We are struck by the quality of the housing, it is all well kept and painted in these towns, the fences are in good condition. We pass some beautiful lush green golf courses, and at Eketahuna the golf course has sheep grazing on the fairways and the greens are protected with fences. Eketahuna also has the Large Kiwi which has moved across the road from when we were there last time.

On the road we are noticing lots of windfarms, these are providing power to Palmerstone North. 

We take the Remutaka hill road as we are just an hour from Wellington, we climb the hills which is a steep and winding road with spectacular views but nowhere to take a photo easily, we come into Petone where we are staying around 2pm. 

This afternoon we take a walk along the beach overlooking Wellington Harbour, the beach here is again dark sand with a lot of timber and debris washed up onto the area. Not an attractive beach but a lovely view out of the heads and we see one of the inter-island ferries going out of the harbour.