Back in Napier

We've made it, we're back!  But first, time to rewind a bit...

So, that day in Stigletz that was super hazy, we drove down into town and had breakfast at Banjo's.  Not very exciting, but the food was good.  During that time I was trying to organise a dinner with Rob, Denny and Simone, but I muppeted it up a fair bit.  Anyway, we eventually got something organised, so then we headed off to Bay of Fires to see how much things have changed.  The short answer is, quite a lot.  Cozy Corner was packed with campers and RVs, which I think is pretty shit.  When we used to go it was tents, tents and more tents.  Now it's just lots of shitty RVs that park up everywhere, get out their Satellite TV and sit in the bush watching TV and going "Wow this is amazing" before driving off to the next place to do the same thing.  Yes, I am old and grumpy now.

Anyway after visting Binalong Bay/Bay of Fires we headed back to our house, we were going to go to the Beach but it was super windy by this stage, blowing a lot of the smoke/haze away, but also meaning that the beach would have been quite terrible.  So we just had some downtime at the house, the kids watched the iPad and we watched the cricket on TV.  When it was dinner time we went down to The Wharf Bar and Kitchen for a lovely dinner.  Midway through Jordan rang me and we fixed the stupid router at home that'd powered off AGAIN. Rage.  Thought I'd fixed that.

Went home and went to bed.  Sadly woken up at ~5am by Theo who'd wet the bed.  Thankfully the AirBnB was prepared for this event and had a good matress protector etc on the bed.  But poor Big Bae was very peed on, so into the washing machine he went, then the sheets etc.  So it was a bit of an early morning for everyone, we had to decamp them to the couches downstairs.  Theo went to sleep again no worries, but Beth didn't.

Anyway when it was a decent hour we got everyone up, packed up the house and left.  The house was nice, but very wooden, everything creaked when you walked anywhere and the ants.  You left one thing out and the ants just swarmed on it. Even the honey with the lid on, they were all over it trying to suck stuff off it. Erk.

Anyway we headed off for Hobart, stopping on the way for a toasted sandwich in Scamander, then in Swansea we got a bite to eat at a cafe thingy (The bark museum) and then onwards towards Hobart, stopping quickly at the Spiky Bridge because I always remember we used to pester Mum and Dad to stop there all the time when we were little.

Eventually we made it into Hobart and checked into The Lenna.  Then I drove the rental car down to the Airport and handed it over, thanks Rental Car you were good to us.  Dad kindly drove down to pick me up and take me back to The Lenna.  We hung out for a bit, then walked over to Dad's to show the kids "Pa's House" and from there we walked down to Fish Frenzy for a bite to eat.  Afterwards we tried to find an icecream shop but missed, so we went to the Chocolate Shop thingy in Salamanca Cove instead.

The next morning we got up and walked down to get on the Mona Ferry.  We got there with a decent bit of time to spare because Beth really wanted to sit on a Sheep on the Ferry.  We got on and managed to score a sheep, much to her delight.  She camped on the thing the whole way to Mona, even though other little boys and girls really wanted a turn.  To be fair, she did let them on for a few minutes, but always wanted it back!  I had one too, I must say it wasn't the most comfortable thing I've ever sat on!

Mona itself was pretty awesome, though it would have been even better if we didn't have two small children.  It's interesting, but really for them it wasn't THAT interesting.  There was a few things for kids to make it exciting, like music in the little app thing they give you, and Fat Car.  And the Madonna Room was awesome and crazy.  But it was very dark and odd and you're not quite sure if you're going in the right direction or the wrong one, we did a lot of backtracking and walking places we'd been already.  But yea, it was cool, also loved the Heartbeat display, that was very clever too.  Oh and just before we went I got a beer from the Moo Brew roulette machine, I got a mid-strength MooBrew which was quite tasty I thought.  Better than the two girls who'd played 3 times and got 2 cans of Fosters and a Stout!

Once we'd had enough of Mona after 2 and a half hours we caught the Ferry back to Hobart.  This time we were on MR2 and it had Jungle Animals, so Beth rode a Tiger all the way home.  Once in town we went to a Sushi Train which the kids utterly loved, so did I to be fair.  Then we walked up to JB Hifi so I could get a case for my new Pixel 4XL.  Sarah went and did a bit of shopping and I took the kids to see the Cat and Fiddle clock thing, something I've always loved since I was a kid and it was cool to show my kids.

I tried to get the kids to have a bit of a rest, then we went out for dinner with Simone.  We were also going to meet up with Rob and Denny but they were both sick.  We had a nice dinner with Simone at La Mensa.  For a Monday night it was very busy and I guess that's why the service was a bit rat-shit.  In the end I had to go over and say "Our table is piled with plates and the kids have been waiting for 30 minutes for their icecream, please fix!"  To their credit, they did fix it pretty quickly and come over and apologise too.  Anyway, Dinner was nice and afterwards Simone and I had a cocktail back at the Hotel bar and had a bit more of a catchup.  It's much easier to chat when small children aren't saying "Mummy/Daddy" every 32 seconds.

Next day I got up super early and whizzed into town to get a screen protector for my new phone, I'd forgotten to get one the previous day.  Then we headed over to the park just behind Lenna and caught up with Auntie Liz, Uncle Brian, Pa, plus Hannah and Jemma's daughters.  That was nice, it was good to see everyone.

From there we jumped into Pa's car (thanks Rob and Denny for the carseats) and drove down to see Travers and his Family in Margate.  Had a nice BBQ lunch with them and hung out for a while.  Smoked meat is amazing, I must learn how to do it like Trav did.  Then we had a quick drive past 42 Illawarra Road to show the kids were I used to live, then back to The Lenna.  Then the kids got dropped over at Pa's for their big SLEEPOVER AT PA'S, I went and picked up Simone and drove back down to Kingston to visit Chris' grave with her.  That was a bit sad, but I'm still glad I got to go down, I think it mean a lot to Simone.  I'm not much one for talking to graves, but it was still nice to see Chris' final resting place, poor dude.  Poor Simone.  Anyway, it was nice if sad.  Then I dropped her back home, dropped the car back off at Dad's and went back to the hotel.  Then Sarah and I went to have an amazing 8 course degustation at Aloft.  Far out it was good, really lovely food.  Even the Brocolli was tasty!  We'd heard from Dad that the sleepover was going well, so that was good news!

The next morning we slept in, Pa texted about 7:30am to say everyone was happy, they'd had a good sleep but were awake now. Sarah and I went and had a late breakfast at the Laundry/Cafe place in Salamanca, which had great coffee and really lovely food.  Then we headed over to Pa's and drove up to the Mt Nelson signal station for a look around with the kids, had a little snack up there etc.  It was nice, the weather was great and the views were pretty good.

Then we just went and did a bit of shopping at Salamanca, trying to find some toys for the kids to take home as a memory of Hobart.  Beth ended up buying a small stuffed Tassie Devil, Theo a couple of underwater diver things from a product that looks like lego but isn't.

We went back, had a rest, then met up with Pa for a final dinner at Botanica.  The food was good, but almost everything had spice on it which the kids hate.  Then finally it was time to wave a final farewell to Pa, so we had to walk home with Beth in tears about saying goodbye to Pa.  Just the same as when we'd left Sister's Beach a week earlier, a lot of tears saying goodbye there too.  Poor Beth!

It was off to bed early after packing our bags, then up super early for the shuttle the next morning.  I'm glad Sarah set her alarm early, I'd set mine for 4am and the shuttle was coming at 4:20am! Brain fart!  Anyway all went well, the shuttle got us down to the airport with time to spare.

Then it was the 3 plane rides home.  The only bit of excitement on the way was nearly not making bag-check in Auckland, I had to rush ahead while Sarah was still in the immigration queue with the kids.  I made bag-check with 13 minutes to spare though, so all good!  It would have sucked if we'd missed it and had to spend the night in Auckland.  The kids of course didn't sleep at all on any planes, but Theo finally fell asleep in Grandma's car (thanks Peter and Mary for picking us up) about 1km from home.  Sarah carried him into bed and he slept the night through, even though he hadn't even had any dinner. Poor little man was knackered!

And THAT was our Tasmania Holiday over and done with.  Next day Theo and I went and picked up Biscuit from the dog kennels, thankfully this time they said he was great, played with all the other dogs and was really nice.  Probably the fact he's a bit older, plus definitely the fact he's ball-less, made him much more of a delight.  At least he's allowed back, last time I picked him up they said he wouldn't be allowed back unless he was desexed!

Phew!  Glad to have typed all that our finally.  The kids have been pestering me for the last 40 minutes and I keep telling them to leave me alone I am busy writing my story!  Kids if you ever read this one day, sorry for getting crabby with you, but far out your Rock Hopper having a flat battery is not an emergency Theo!

Tim