Blogs from Napier, Hawkes Bay, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

Wednesday 17 December 2008 The Wairapa Coast - Wellington to Napier Captains Log: (for the seafarers amongst you) We motored out of Wellington Harbour on a southerly heading for about an hour then headed east mainly under motor for 4-5 hours until past Cape Palliser. We turned northeast 14 nautical miles south east of Cape Palliser and basically maintained that course for the next 24 hours under motor and/or sail. Just nor-nor-west of Cape Kidnappers we headed northwest towards the lights of Napier, the last 12 hours under motor due to no wind. The entry into Napier was very confusing and difficult to find the small navigation lights against the plethora of background lights. In the end we followed a coastal container vessel through the channel, and berthed at the Napier Yacht Club Marina. The bigger ... read more

Just before we left, i had dinner with my great friends Sarah Cox and Anna Holman. Sarah's husband, Richard, asked me about the approaching trip and i was more than happy to describe all our exciting plans. Afterwards Richard, who is from Yorkshire and has higher sarcasm levels than most, was silent for a few seconds and then concluded " so basically you are following winter around the world". I laughted it off at the time, but I'm afraid that Richard (and it pains me to say this) was right! Winter is definitely here in New Zealand. We know this by the extraordinarily large amounts of water which have been leaving the sky since the moment we arrived here 10 days ago. Literally every hour!!! However we are British and rain or no rain our spirits ... read more

Day 12-14 Tuesday, Wed & Thursday 2/24-26 We had a beautiful drive down from Taupo to Napier. Taupo is on Lake Taupo which is a big lake that was created from an explosion and which literally blew off the top of a mountain. The drive down to Napier was nice and we actually went 50k without mountains. I think it is about 150K from Taupo to Napier. The Napier/Hastings area is really interesting and beautiful. It is a big Wine producing area. Next time you buy NZ wine and see Hawks Bay on it, it comes from this area. Napier and Hastings are on the Pacific Ocean (East side of the North Island). Both towns feature a lot of Art Deco buildings. In fact, Napier is known as the Art Deco City. This was caused by ... read more

photos of us!... read more

DATE VISITED: NEW YRS EVE AND NEW YRS DAY: After another half day of driving down the coast from the East Cape we entered Hawkes Bay. Our base for the night was a town called Napier which was shook by an Earthquake in the mid 1920's and was flattenned as a result. Napier as a result of this natural disaster presents to the visitor a vast array of Art Deco architecture which was built shortly after the Earthquake. We have bumped into a few Kiwis approaching East Cape and this region who still took of rumbles today (and given the recent shake in Gisborne last week - a city just up the coast ) we didn't exactly feel relaxed driving to a fault line.! The town resembles a Southern England resort (no pier or arcades! but ... read more