It's another long drive through amazing scenery, while listening to great music and partaking in our favourite past time of taking the p out of each other. Lake why have a banana (our only way of remembering it) or Lake W as I'll call it, is another of the great walks, less popular than the Tongariro, harder to get to and completely different.
Before we get there we call in at Napier - perhaps the most Art Deco town in the world. It's advantage over Barcelona being that it was practically destroyed in 1931 by an earthquake and had to be rebuilt. Why they decided on Art Deco i don't know. The result is a lovely little town, a huge bay of brilliant water, some excellent coffee and cakes and unexpected waves (see pics).
I'm glad to arrive after a long stretch of winding unsealed roads. We're in a lodge on the shore of Lake Whakamarino, the little sister of where we're walking. It soon becomes obvious that we're staying in Fawlty Towers. We're in the middle of nowhere, there's no shop, restaurant or anything really and so we have 'decided' to have dinner from the lodge. I spend most of my time trying not to laugh out loud. Dinner is plonked down in front us (i was expecting a menu or some sort of choice!), Tony seems intent on making small talk with the lady serving us (the cook), but she doesn't understand him, and he doesn't understand her, there are 2 elderly couples on the table next to us and one of the most made up ladies i have ever seen takes a shine to Tony. Her body language is hilarious and shows she's not past flirting with young toyboys - Tony response is to mutter the words "murray mints". One of the old guys is obviously hard of hearing by the way he SHOUTS ALL THE TIME. Our attempts at getting information results in the cook running back and forth in a very bizarre manner to the boss sat 10 feet away in the next room, who is seemingly too fat to come out herself. Pudding involves a lot of 100's and 1000's to bring back childhood memories and the whole thing is just slightly strange.
Still the walking was fantastic - we were virtually the only ones on the track. The views over the lake were amazing and the weather was glorious. There was a lack of wildlife compared to say Malaysia (where you can't help but step on an insect every few seconds), but there was a real feeling of being back to nature. I like this walk a lot.
