Day 5: Hastings
Welcome
Yesterday we enjoyed a rest day in Hastings, neighbour and rival town to Napier.
Food was scarce in our Airbnb but I threw together a passable breakfast of some Maison Therese Balsamic Onion Relish, Mexicano Salsa tortilla chips, and Nando’s Lemon and Herb Peri-Peri Mayonaisse, atop an Abe’s Cinnamon Bagel.
I spent the rest of my morning uploading all of my past tour breakfasts to the brand new Breakfast and Travel Updates Instagram. If you are interested in viewing my tour breakfasts in a more succinct format and symmetrical aspect ratio then give @breakfastandtravelupdates a follow, or if you get stuck follow the instructional video below.
Tristan woke up and immediately baggsed the trampoline and didn’t let anyone else on until after lunch.
I hit a few op shops in the afternoon and made a thrilling purchase.
The Macpro BIG GRIP is my second acquisition from McCulloch Products line of Microwave-proof kitchen utensils, designed and manufactured in New Zealand during the microwave cooking boon of the 1970s.
My pride and joy, The Macpro Masher.
📷 Ben Gregson
The founder of McCulloch products is Norma McColloch who began her career as an employee of the Fisher and Paykel company but rose to fame after designing a hand pump for getting air out of freezer bags. In 1975, she was described as "a one-woman trade mission" by a New Zealand press representative in London, when she she sold thousands of her pumps to British housewives who were, she said "far behind New Zealand women in expertise in deep-freezing."
The McCulloch hand vacuum pump.
📷 teara.govt.nz
In the early 1990s after her son witnessed a car accident she was inspired to design an affordable plastic hand-held resuscitator that was safer and more effective than CPR. Initially rejected by St Johns she adapted it for farm animals and sold 45,000 kits over the next decade. Eventually St John approved the resuscitator and she went on to sell the patent to a European company.
Norma was recognised as one of the top 10 female inventors in the world at the Global Women's Innovator and Inventor Awards in Britain in 2003.
Norma McCulloch
In the early evening I drove to Te Mata and did a run up to the peak. Turns out Tristan also cycled up to the same peak but we missed each other.
When I arrived home our now complete tour party sat together around the table and enjoyed a scrumptious home-cooked meal.
