Napier- the Art Deco city

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After all the alarms started buzzing about 5:30 in the morning, we all scrambled half asleep to the top of the ridge overlooking the ocean to be the first people on the planet to greet the new day! Quite neat actually! And we heard that it was practically a zoo up here on the morning when we turned into the year 2000, since so many people wanted to be the first to greet the new Millenium.
So since we were all up and we had a long day of driving ahead of us, we got a quite early start and continued along hwy 35. Along the way we saw the longest wharf in the Southern Hemisphere ( it goes 660 m into the ocean), took more pictures of the rugged coast line, stopped at some hot springs to soak our travel weary bodies in the warm water bubbling out of the earth, and arrived at long last in Napier. Napier was completely destroyed in an Earthquake in 1931, and since Art Deco was in style when the city was rebuild, it is now a city that Rivals Miami, FL in it's plethera of Art Deco buildings. Our hostel (Archie's bunker) also was a really neat building, and since we were all a bit tired from the drive and since got up so early, a good nights sleep after a short walk throug town was all we could muster.

Off to return to Taupo in the morning....

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