Napier... 3 weeks in Prison! Oct 25-Nov 15

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Oct 25 - November 15
Ahh, Napier Prison, my home for the last 3 weeks. This has been the most relaxing 3 weeks of my trip so far. Yet, it’s the first 3 weeks that I’ve actually worked. For 2 hours a day I had guided tourists - mainly older adults in their 60s - 70s, but some backpackers as well, through the currently decommissioned but haunted prison. Napier Prison first opened in 1862 and remained open until 1993 before it was shut down. It briefly opened as a hostel in 2002, but that was closed this past July. So the only ones living in the prison were the staff - all of whom are backpackers, and most of whom (myself included) were working for accommodation only. So it was nice and homey- well as homey as a prison could ever be.
I shared a cell with two Canadians. Our cell had 1 toilet and a sink but we’d have to go outside to the main yard to take our showers. Luckily they added hot water to the piping once the prison became backpackers (NZ term for hostel). my tours were held at 9:30 and 11, but for a week or so I had afternoon tours at 1:00 and 3:00 pm, and once I was done walking the tourists through the cells, graveyard, and hanging yard and after grossing them out with some of the death row stories, I would spend my time venturing into the city of Napier.
Downtown Napier consists of maybe 10 city blocks filled with cafes, bars and clothing stores. In 1931 there was an earthquake the destroyed many of the city’s buildings and so once they were rebuilt they were built in a very art-deco style. Hawkes Bay borders the city on the east. The beach, instead of sand, is covered in small black pebbles. Marine parade, the road along the beach, is lined with pine trees. A short walk uphill from where the prison lies is Bluff Hill; from there you can see the city of Napier and the Pacific Ocean from above. It was quite a site, especially when a bunch of us left the prison at 5:45 AM one morning to view the sunrise for Katy’s (one of my cellmates) birthday.
On my day off, Saturday Nov 7th, I had taken one of the prison’s bikes and rode for 2 hours along the beach road and onto farmland and vineyards before arriving at Clifton. From there I walked another 2 hours along the sandy beach with the ocean to my left and rock cliffs to my right until I reached Cape Kidnappers. I didn’t have time to reach the very top of the cape since I had to get off the beach prior to high tide. But I did get to see a gorgeous view of the beach and surrounding area from as I as I did reach. Also at the top were, surprisingly but also unsurprisingly at the same time, sheep.
Here are some other memorable times at the prison or around town with other inmates:
1) Halloween - My cellmates and I were dressed up for Halloween but nothing much was really going on at the bars in town, so we sat on the beach until we were allowed back into the prison (there was a scary night tour happening at the prison, so we were kicked out for the night). Kelly was dressed as a rainbow, Katy as a fallen angel, and I as a Canadian

2) Quiz night at Cri Bar - every Thursday nights - the prison split up in to two teams since there were so many of us. Questions were pretty hard and mainly consisted of kiwi and British questions - but the 1st prize - $50 bar tab - which my team won once. Plus in the middle of the quiz free appetizers were brought out to each team.

3) Bonfire on the Beach - On one of my last nights in Napier, a bunch of us went to the beach down the block and had a bonfire with sausages (mine were veggie) and s’mores. Apparently they don’t have graham crackers in New Zealand - so we did the next best thing, we used biscuits that were coated with chocolate on one side. We had one kiwi with us and several Germans who never had s’mores before, so it was fun teaching them about it and seeing them eat it.

4) International food and wine festival - a few of us went to this festival on the other side of town that was hosted by a local elementary school. They had food from around the world including “an authentic American brownie”, but I opted for Pumpkin and chickpea curry instead - which was really good. All proceeds went to the school. It was fun doing something local and not touristy at all. Some students performed as well and there were bagpipes too.

5) Bop it - Tobi and I would spend quite a bit of our free time playing this annoyingly addicting game. Basically you had to do what this toy tells you to do “pull it, twist it, bop it, or shout it” if you mess up it yells something arrogant at you. We would sometimes play the “pass it” version, which is basically the same, but if it says “pass it” you need to pass the toy to the next player. High score was 100, though I never got higher than 30.

6) Playing “slap it” - Kelly taught us this game that she thought her friend made up, but apparently he didn’t because other people seemed to have known the game. It’s become one of my favorite card games and I’ve taught it to others I’ve met in NZ already.

7) Burning the toaster - the day before Kelly left, the caretakers of the prison had brought us dinner and there were some veggie sausages left over. The next day, I decided to heat my sausage over the toaster, but Kelly’s ride was there to pick her up so I left the kitchen to say bye to her, and once I came back to the kitchen I noticed the toaster on fire. We quickly got the fire out. But I was called to the office, and Marion, one of the caretakers had told me that I had to buy them a new toaster. Luckily though, the toaster was still working and so I told her and thus was relieved from having to purchase a new one.

8) Watching TV in 3D - something was broken within the projector of the television; everything on tv seemed to be in 3D. But that didn’t stop any of us from watching it. We watched 3D Simpsons, rugby, soccer, and even spongebob!

9) New music - it was at Napier Prison where I was introduced to two really good international -bands. - both Spanish speaking, Ska-P from Spain and La Vela Puerca from Uruaguay. Both are Ska bands. Before leaving the prison I got Simon from France to download Ska-P to my computer and Martin from Argentina to send me La Vela Puerca.

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