November 9

Election day in the US! We watched some results as they came in and. Watched in disbelief that Trump won the nomination. We may stay in New Zealand.

In the morning we enjoyed some down time before heading out the door at ten am. Sandra took us toTe Mata, a lookout over the area, the ocean, Hastings and Napier. We nearly got into an accident on the windy narrow road up there. Sandra says she runs up there! More power to her! We were still moving quite slowly from our hiking adventures, but it was good to get out a bit. Sandra’s car is a two door and low so Renees entrances and exits were never very graceful into the back seat. We then headed to Napier for a look at the beach, shipyard and some shops. Alison purchased some jade and we did some other window shopping. We went to a pond and emmer send our sore legs into the refreshing water. On the way back we ran into some tell take signs that we were not supposed to get ice cream. First we couldn’t find the ice cream shop in Napier. Then in Hastings we arrived just as they were closing. We had 30 minutes to get to the Strawberry Farm before it closed and when we got there their ice cream machine had just been turned off. There were tubs available but I couldn’t use my card and our cash was in the the car. All the while time is ticking away. Thankfully Sandra picked up the tab and we were finally able to get our ice cream.

While in Napier we went to the #1 rated toilet in 1998 for cleanliness. It cost twenty cents to use it, it was kind of like a museum.

Our evening consisted of watching election results, laundry, eating and Renee trying to upload photos onto Facebook.