Napier

We just don't learn.

Last time we stayed at Evans Bay Marina Free Camping area in Wellington we had the worst nights sleep, and we decided to stay there again? In comparision, it wasn't so bad last time, we needed to get up early to head to the ferry so the early morning noise wasn't too annoying. This time we had an activity planned the next day that we ideally wanted to be well rested for. Let me tell you, sleep deprivation faced with an overly enthusiastic yet severely hungover tour guide is not a good mix.

Weta workshop, according to its website "is a five-time Academy Award-winning creative design and practical effects company that services the world’s creative industries." I know them as the people behind the special effects and props in lord of the rings. The tour we joined lasted an hour and a half and took us through the process of making prosthetics and props, there was also many rooms that we were taken through to admire some of their past work. Due to copy-write we unable to actually take photos of any of these props but they were cool to see. It was on this tour that I discovered I wasn't as big a nerd as I thought I was, I thought I'd be super excited to see these pieces of film history and although they were impressive, the sense of childlike glee and wonder was missing for me.

As soon as we left wellington it seemed like the weather turned against us, it rained every day for a solid week. Lake domain reserve, however lovely, was a bit boring in the rain. Our second stop, Kiriwhakapapa was the same. We did manage some rain free hours on the drive to this campsite and along the way we encountered a deer... not like an English deer, bursting through the hedge line playing a risky game of chicken with the traffic, but just calmly standing by the side of the road, happy to be called over for some pets.

I suppose its not that odd when you consider that deer farming is a big thing in New Zealand, not in the sense that you have deer on your property then some rich people come along to pay and shoot it, but like cows or sheep, specifically bred and raised for the table. This young lady must have escaped. She was so friendly and I couldn't just leave her there, just one driver taking the road too fast could result in a horrible outcome, but I couldn't take her with me either. As sweet as she was the van wasn't big enough for the three of us - could you imagine! Ben, this deer and I all trying to fit into the bed, it would be a little crowded! She'd take up far too much room! Luckily there was a field with a high gate nearby and she was pretty content for me to lead her in... I have no idea if that's where she should have been but at least she wasn't on the road.

Although the deer befriending cheered us up, the near constant rain was making us feel under the weather, so to counter this we headed to a nearby low cost campsite for the luxury of hot running water. I know, how fancy. Ekatahuna Campsite was a charming little camp on the outskirts of a randomly Kiwi themed village. It felt like a place that had long ago passed its heyday and decided on a village wide rebranding to try and drum up some new trade. The 15ft high Kiwi sadly didn't seem to be working. In fact, every small town we passed on our route seemed to be trying this tactic, the viking themed Dannevirke and Norsewood, particularly sticking out in my memory.

Wanting to escape the weather altogether we decided to head to Napier in the hopes it was north enough to be a bit warmer. It was, but the way there sure was windy, so windy, in fact that we arrived hours past when we'd estimated and was more than hungry. Deciding on a place to eat whilst hungry is never a good plan, immediacy overtakes common sense and that's how we ended up eating overpriced and average fish and chips at a drinkers pub on the outskirts of town. It could have been worse.

Napier itself was a beautiful town, the center full of delightfully historic Art Deco buildings lining pedestrian friendly streets. The reason behind the uniformity of Napiers commercial center wasn't due to design but disaster. On the morning of the 3rd of February 1931 Napier was struck with New Zealands deadliest disaster, two concurrent earth quakes that reached 7.8 in magnitude. Sadly 256 people died and thousands more were injured, so widespread was the damage to Napier that 90% of its 16,000 residents left until restorations were under way.

When rebuilding the city center there were three things to consider, safety, cost and lastly style. The most important factor of Napiers "new" city center was that it was built to withstand earthquakes, the Art Deco buildings in general are squat, one level structures built from reinforced concrete, which is useful in dispersing inertia caused from earthquake into their foundations - just what the city needed. So luckily for Napier, Art Deco was beautiful as well as practical and some thing special could made from the disaster.

We'd lucked out and arrived just in time for their weekly farmers market, where we brought some amazing pastries to snack on while we sat back and enjoyed the sunshine. With the buildings and the palm trees, Napier definitely gives off a Venice beach vibe, just on a smaller scale (i imagine). We spent a happy few hours, wandering up and down the streets, finding the best buildings to practice our photography on.

Another place we enjoyed was the Aquarium. Although it's known as the National Aquarium of New Zealand, it wasn't the largest aquarium I've visited, but it sure managed to fit enough in without the enclosures seeming cramped.

Our favourite residents happened to be the little blue penguins; all of them there as they wouldn't survive in the wild, too friendly or with disabilities that would hamper them (they do rehabilitate the penguins they can, sending them back off to the wild once they're sure of their survival). They seemed happy, adventuring out at feeding time to race through the water to find the fish that was thrown in. One penguin in particular, was more interested in sidling up to a keeper, standing as co-host as he told us all about Little Blue Penguins in the wild.

All in all it took us about one and a half hours to visit every part of the aquarium - as well as riding along the 50m travelator through the tunnelled tank twice. It was fairly expensive at $27 each but we thought it was more than worth it for the enjoyment we got out of it.

Trip Date : May/June 2023