We are in Nelson - the Art Deco city. There are many, many buildings still in the Art Deco style; the architecture and colours make this a visually striking place.
However, I am getting ahead of myself. The drive from National Park to Napier was superb. It started with the mountains in cloud and we felt sorry for those attempting the Tongariro Crossing. As we drove towards Taupo the lower slopes were clearing, leaving Mount Doom looking very menacing. The journey retraced our steps along the shores of Lake Taupo before striking East past the Kaingaroa Forest (largest plantation in the Southern Hemisphere). Here we encountered many more of the massive logging trucks with huge trailers - machines I thought were only found in USA or Australia. The road (only completely surfaced recently) then winds it's way up through the spectacular hill country to the Titiokura saddle. The swooping road sped (actually not true as the maximum speed limit is 60 mph) down through the hills until we reached the plains of Hawkes Bay with fruit and vines becoming prominent. There were a couple of photographic stops, one at Tarawara at a tremendous cafe whose walls had masses of information about the area and Highway 5 over the past century.
We lunched in 30°C on the beach looking across the bay at Napier before exploring the city. This is the most delightful large place we have been so far. The whole city was flattened by an earthquake in 1931and rebuilt in the Art Deco style of the time and much has not changed. There are some great buildings and although the main street looks like any other high street if you look up the buildings are anything but. We enjoyed our stroll around and OF1 managed to repel a pushy lady trying to sell her a 1930's style hat. It was lovely but only if you added the full costume which apparently most do for the annual Art Deco week - I would love to come back for it.
Onto a place to rest our weary heads. The bike hire place offered accommodation and this was motel style. The 'unit' is modern, ultra clean with a boutique bathroom. The worrying thing was the lady of the manor was keen to point out that torches were provided, IN CASE OF AN EARTHQUAKE!!!
We watched a bit of New Zealand television just to confirm how awful it is but were rewarded with something for our Speak Kiwi book. The fire chief explaining about the forest fires near Canterbury talked about, "the puppy got out of the paddock". I am left wondering if pony was the subject but then this is New Zealand.
The one thing that is correct here is the weather forecast. The nice young man said the drought would lift and it did. This morning we woke to the sound of rain - that very fine stuff that drenches you in seconds. We cancelled the bike ride but were we upset that the puppy was out of the paddock? No, we tackled the features on the route by car! This morning we went to a chocolatier and sampled the goods in solid and liquid form. We also visited the nearby artist co-operative and treated ourselves to a little souvenir.
In the early afternoon we were off on the winery tour, well we went to two! The most impressive was Mission Estate Winery which is the oldest, founded by French monks in 1951. There is a historical information room and we had the wine tasting. This was just $5 and included a glass which you could buy for $5!! Still, I was driving so OF1 slurped her way through eight wines and I had a sip (or two). They were lovely wines and a shame we could not bring a case home.
To finish off the day we went to a little art deco boutique cinema. There were large leather seats or sofas to sit 45 only in total. There were upmarket nibbles or you could order a pot of coffee to be delivered to your seat as the film started to roll or a pizza could also be delivered to your seat, freshly cooked at the Italian next door! As the New Zealanders say (every few seconds), "awesome". Oh, we watched 'Jackie' which I really enjoyed but OF1 was less enamoured with it.
Tomorrow is a long drive to Wellington for the 1.30 ferry to South Island. The day after is a walk on the Queen Charlotte track.
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