New Zealand: Napier - A city on the east coast of North Island

Afer the Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk in New Zealand, we drove down to Napier which was the closest airport and spent a day there.

This was the backpackers where we stayed, overlooking the beach at Napiers

Napiers is a quaint town featuring a lot of Art Deco

Several walls had paintings on them. This one seemed to be a turtle stuck in garbage with soda cans and cigarette butts - perhaps environmental art?

Hawke's Bay at Napiers was a huge beach that seemed endless.

Everywhere we went, we were met by helpful Kiwis. We didn't know how to operate the gas pump, and requested this person of Brazilian origin. He was most helpful and stopped his car, helped us refuel, and got back to his work!

The Mission Estate Windery is the oldest winery in Napier dating back to when the missionaries first came and settled down. This building was literally lifted up and carried to this location, when it was sinking.

Wooden barrels imported from France, to mature the wines.

The Mission Estate Winery

I tasted a lot of wine, including this bottle of Viognier at Mission Estate Winery. They had some fine wines including Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet, Sauvignon Blanc mostly from their own winery dating back to various years. I don't know anything about wine, except that some wines taste good, and some are too strong or too sweet for my taste! At the end, I was pleasantly drunk, because I didn't use the spittoon that is normally used for wine-tasting!

A car of unknown make used to convey a sense of going in a vintage car for tasting wine! We went by bus to the winery, since I'm niggardly and only wanted to spend on the wine itself and not the $120 tour! Besides, the car seemed to be a modern one painted from the outside and decked out for tourists!

A view of the vineyard.

Another winery at Churchstreet that we visited for wine-tasting.

Another exemplary Kiwi! We did not have enough change for the bus ticket, and this woman, who was the only other passenger, overheard us. She graciously bought us bus tickets! I thought an exchange was in order, and gave her a pair of wine glasses that we had pciked up at the winery, much over her protests.

A busy day at Napier. The crowds are conspicous by their absence.

Napiers should have been a bustling town just after Christmas since it has a lovely beach. And the cars parked everywhere meant people must be somewhere! I half-expected their ghosts to start materializing out of thin air.

A coffeee shop on the beach (converted from a rail wagon)

The Spirit of Napier - a sculpture gracing the city.

Continental Fish Supply was chock full of customers and doing brisk business. Chinese assembly line counter, frying trays, packing and ridiculously low prices work!

At the Art Deco Trust, a frame stood on the road, waiting for people to pose and take photos! I did that.

Art Deco is a visual style combining modern elements, very clean cut lines and curves, influenced by a mixture of several art forms, combining elements of the old with modernity.

Art Deco came into vogue around the 1920's and was hugely popular in the next few decades.

The city of Napier went through a massive earthquake in 1931. All the buildings were rebuilt in Art Deco style and are maintained since then.

It seemed like Napier was a beautiful city set in the 1930's, and so I decided to give this pic an aged vintage look in line with the car parked at the front!

The Bowman building was hugely influenced by the clean line architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, an American architect.

Lady Sarah Lennox, the notorious wife of Charles Napier after whom the city is named. Sarah Lennox had several affairs with several men, including King George III, turned down proposals from royalty, and also designed some of the buildings personally. This statue is a tribute to an outstanding woman of her times, who commanded much more than the hound always at her side.

The Princess and the Cat, except the cat is real!

This Nissan Sunny Saloon automatic from 2001 was parked on the road advertised for sale at NZD 2500 (approx 1.25 lakhs). A strange but effective way for passing people to give a call - except there were no people to pass!

Another street mural in Napier - it seemed to be some tale of a whale, but it was beyond my grasp. Had I known earlier of the several murals throughout the city of Napier, I would have carried a seawalls map and visited all of them, but there is only so much one can do in a day!

All along the beach, there are childrens' play areas, skating rinks and bicycle paths for people

There are even gymming machines and thigh exercisers on the beach for those so inclined!

The National Aquarium of New Zealand

The size of these pine trees (planted after the earthquake of 1931) has to be seen to be believed!

Bollywood Stars was the highest rated restaurant in Napiers. In almost every city we went to, Indian restaurants were right at the top in rankings, and were manned by Punjabis. The food was excellent, and the only New Zealand touch about it was an absence of salt. I had to use the salt shaker liberally on everything!

Pak'n'Save seems to be a grocery store chain through every large city.

The sun setting over a super-busy street in Naples!