Hawkes Bay

When we arrived at our final destination there was, appropriately, a rainbow.

Rainbow and Cape Kidnappers (across the street from our B&B)

We spent the next day doing the art deco walk around the city of Napier.  If you like art deco, as we do, this is a must see place.  Napier was almost entirely destroyed by a 1931 earthquake.  By 1933, the city had been rebuilt, making it the newest and most modern city at that time.  Napier calls itself the Art Deco Capital of the World, and with 140 art deco buildings it may just be.

These 4 tunes on the half hour including Puttin' On the Ritz

After our tour, we drove northern part of the city to the Ahuriri Estuary walk.  This 2 mile loop includes sections of boardwalk that take you across the water or mudflats.  There are some Maori poles and other sculptures along the way.   A white-faced heron obliged for this shot atop one of the poles.

White-faced heron on Maori Pole

We drove half way up to Te Mata Peak in Havelock North and hiked the rest of the way to the top.  The landscape is fascinating.  We then drove back to Napier to walk along the Marine Parade.  It was a beautiful scene with the Pacific Ocean on one side and the art deco buildings on the other.

View from Te Mata Peak

View of Te Mata Peak

This evening our B&B hosts, invited us for an evening of wine and cheese.  Since we are staying in a winery 5 varieties of only Beach House wine were served.  It is a good thing we can just walk back to our room.  Our hosts were most gracious and fun to chat with. By the way, New Zealand wines are really wonderful. 

Grapes harvested the day we left.

This is our last blog entry and we wanted to say something about the people of New Zealand.  We can’t count the number of times we said, “The people here are so nice.”  You can always strike up a conversation on the street.   People go out of their way to be helpful and friendly.  We both felt very comfortable and welcomed for the entire 3 months in New Zealand.