"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report #35 Napier, New Zealand February 4, 2018 Sunday Mostly sunny & 70 degrees Part #1 Of 4 80 Pictures

Napier is an overnight sail from Tauranga. Situated at the end of beautiful and spacious Hawke’s Bay, it is considered the art deco capital of the world. Bet when the Maoris settled this area back in 1250, they never saw this coming. The first European to land here was Captain Cook in 1769. He was followed by traders, and the Anglican and Catholic missionaries in 1831. Someone had the brilliant idea to bring sheep in 1849, and the first successful orchard occurred in 1892. It no wonder that after 150 plus years of cultivating the fertile soil, that this part of New Zealand has bragging rights to sheep farming, wine production, and the fruit basket of the country.

Disaster hit in 1931, when a powerful earthquake and fire devastated the city, killing many. The city was eventually rebuilt, but chose to retain the feel of that era. The town has been referred to as a 1930’s film set with the most complete collection of Art Deco buildings. Most all of the facades of the buildings house boutiques, cafes, and small businesses.

What makes this picture-perfect city complete are the old vintage cars you can see being driven up and down the main streets. There was one of these cars parked outside on the pier this morning. The owner was dressed in period clothing, and enjoyed hamming it up with the passengers. We hope that more of his buddies will be here with their vehicles later in the day.

There were a total of ten tours offered today. There was an old fashioned steam train ride through town, a walking tour of the art deco district, or trips out of the area. Those included a ride to Cape Kidnappers to see the second largest mainland colony of gannets in the world. Cool tour, as we did it four years ago. Several excursions went to Hawke’s Bay for wine tasting adventures, also tours we have done. And for the more mobile folks, there was an organized bike ride or a river rafting trip. They ran from $66 to $250, and were 1 ½ hours to 5 hours in duration.

The ship sailed into the bay around 10am. We had been blessed with wonderful weather….blue skies with a crisp breeze. No rain. We watched the sail in from deck three, noticing a few birds that were diving head first into the turquoise waters in the bay. They were not gulls, but sure dove like boobys. Upon closer inspection, we determined that they were the gannets, also in the booby family. With less than an hour’s drive from here, the mainland colony at Cape Kidnappers has thousands of nesting gannets with chicks. They do their diving for fish much closer to the cliffs, so we were lucky to see some in action.

Very slowly, the ship was guided into Higgins Wharf below the steep cliffs of Bluff Hill Domain. This is a working port, where among other things, logs are piled to be loaded for shipping. Lots of logs, all different sizes, are stacked neatly on both sides of the entry. And since this is a commercial port, we were not allowed to walk out of the gate. There were several shuttles to take folks that were not on tours for the 1.3 mile ride to the center of town.

At 11:30am, we left the ship and were handed a map of the town. It was more of an advertisement for things to do and places to shop. No recommended restaurants at all. In town, we were dropped off at the “ i stop” (information building), which had all the info you needed for this area, surrounding districts, and even the South Island. And for those who might want to know, there were restrooms here. In fact, there were plenty of restrooms along the Marine Drive.

Wanting to take photos of the art deco area, we started down Tennyson Street, one of the main semi-pedestrian avenues. This street was lined with the art deco buildings with all the usual big department stores absent. Everything is boutique-like. Even the little coffee shops. At the top of the street, two Scottish-clad bagpipe musicians were playing their tunes for the crowd. Boy, does that sound travel a long ways. We could hear them all the way to Clive Park, a lovely little garden setting with a decorative pond in the center.

There were no restaurants to our liking in this area, so we went back to Marine Drive. Turning right, we made our way past the Sound Shell and Colonnade, a group of vintage car drivers offering rides, and Par2 mini-golf. Since it was Sunday, these family-style places were full of people. Further up the road, we strolled past the colorful sunken gardens and reef gardens. There is a new Bay Skate Park built here. It was jammed with cute little kids on their bikes, skateboards, or scooters riding through a fountain/skate course. A bike track near the ocean side went on and on forever it seemed. It was full of folks taking a long ride for the day. One of the HAL tours did just that, and included our tablemate Ken.

However, we were searching for a restaurant that was not fast food. Despite the fact that there were scores of hotels, motels, and bed and breakfast inns, there were no restaurants that we could see. The ship’s map was virtually useless for eateries.

About in the center of this long drive was a set of almost identical Victorian houses called Six Sisters. As close as we heard the story, a father built these houses for his six daughters. Although a few of the structures were badly damaged during the quake of 1931, they were re-constructed to what we see today. They kind of reminded us of the same type of famous Victorians we have in San Francisco.

We continued up Marine Drive until we reached the National Aquarium of New Zealand, considered the largest one in the country. It houses sharks, sting rays, kiwis, and many varieties of fish. It did say there was a café here, but it was more of a fast food type of business.

It just happened that this was another bus stop for the Amsterdam passengers. The bus waited as a few of us boarded, and went back to the info center. That worked well. From there, we headed across the street to a real restaurant called Lone Star Napier. It looked like a pub you might walk into in Wyoming for instance. A nice young local fellow waited on us, striking up an easy conversation. We ended up ordering a quesadilla and a basket of sweet potato fries. Speight’s beer was the draft choice here, and we added a shared dessert of sponge cake with hokey pokey ice cream filling, drizzled with a raspberry sauce. Our waiter mentioned that it is usually 30 degrees celsius this time of year. That is around 90 degrees. Due to that storm that passed over the last couple of days, it had cooled off here. Lucky us, we say. Our waiter even left us a personalized note with his email address on the back of our bill. He was most interested in hearing all about San Francisco, a place he wants to visit someday.

After lunch, we wandered up the road towards the viewing platform that extended off of the beach. Further up was the statue of Pania of the Reef, a mythical figure with a romantic, but sad story. The Tom Parker fountain was next to her, as was the floral clock. Going a little further, we passed by the Ocean Spa, a community salt water swimming pool. It is heated, and a very safe place for the kids to swim.

Realizing that we were more than halfway back to the port gate, we walked the rest of the way. Once at the gate, our id’s were checked, and we were escorted to a waiting bus, the only way we could enter the port. We toyed with the idea of going back to town to try to get free internet, mostly to download updates, but we did not leave the ship a second time. Too much to do to keep these reports and pictures up-to-date. And it was also an excuse to sit and relax for a bit.

All aboard today was 10:30pm, meaning there was no sail away. Good thing we went up to deck nine to catch a few photos of the port before we lost the light. Down by the gangway, a small group of local musicians and singers were entertaining the guests coming back from tours or town. It was a blast from the past, as they were dressed in 1930’s fashions, having driven their fabulous vintage cars for all to see. This was not an advertised performance, so we were happy to have seen it. Around 6pm, they packed up their instruments, and left the pier.

Dinnertime found Barb, Bonnie, and Paul missing, but we did have a guest. Carol, the watercolor instructor, joined us for the first time this cruise. Those of us that know her well, have made it clear that she always has a spot as a guest at our table. Barb, who knows her the longest, was celebrating an early birthday Pinnacle dinner with her long-time cruise buddies Peter and Don.

A big screen movie was shown in the Queen’s Lounge tonight, as they usually do when we are leaving later in a port. Or staying overnight. The film was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. This movie will eventually be shown on our room TV’s.

Sure looking forward to a day at sea tomorrow as we head south to our last port in New Zealand……Port Chalmers for Dunedin.

Bill & Mary Ann

PS By the way, thanks for the most interesting info on the dinner in the sky venue in Auckland. We figured that experience would be pricey, but not that much, a tad shy of $1000 for two. Wow.

Coming into Hawke’s Bay