Napier and Hawkes Bay

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6th March

We left a wet Wellington to drive North to the Hawkes Bay area, staying at Napier overnight. On the way we stopped at Greytown, well known for its traditional "cottage" style architecture, not maybe cottage in the British sense, but very sweet houses on one level with a veranda and stylish canopy made of corrugated iron. Passed through the farming community of Masterton, we were a day late for its world famous Golden Shears shearing competition, typical! Stopped at the National Wildlife Sanctury at Mount Bruce which was worthwhile, a very well laid out park with mainly indigenous birds, saw our second Kiwi, she was whtie so easily spotted in the enclosure! The white feathers are due to a genetic gene, not very helpful in the wild.

Camped at Bay View, a few kilometres North of Napier with a black volcanic pebble beach, very romantic in the moonlight! Napier itself is famous for its Art Deco Architecture. In 1931 a massive earthquake (7.9 on the Richter scale) hit the town damaging most of the buildings, the subsequent fires destroyed what was left but due to a huge effort by the people of the town, it reorganised itself quickly and was rebuilt within 3 years in the style of the day. It was unusual to have so many new buildings at this time because of the depression throughout the world so the fact that virtually the whole town is the same style is quite unique. The towns folk are rightfully very proud of their town and celebrate their "art deco-ness" in many ways, they have festivals, people dressing in 30's clothes, music and lovley 30's cars everywhere!

Apart from all that there is a working harbour, a new marina, and recently developed old warehouses full of bars and restaurants. If you're not swayed to visit so far the other point to note, is the region of Hawkes Bay produces some fantastic wines, and there are plenty tasting opportunities, although not cheap!

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Comments

[Rhona]

Wine
Forced to drink NZ wine to keep up!!