Napier

Saturday 10 June

Wellington had one last ´surprise´ for us; the parking that we had been assured was unrestricted, wasn´t. We picked up a nice $40 fine. To be fair, we couldn´t complain too much, this wasn´t much more than we would have paid in daily parking fees anyway.

Given that our time on North Island was limited, we decided to follow a basic itinerary suggested in the Lonely Planet travel guide, and thus we left Wellington for an overnight stop in the town of Napier.

Napier really deserved more than one day´s attention. The town´s main claim to fame lies in the numerous 1930´s art-deco buildings dotted around the place - the result of extensive rebuilding after a devastating earthquake in 1931.

Additionally though, it is located on the East Coast in the Hawkes Bay area, New Zealand´s foremost food and wine region.

We arrived at our hostel (´Archies Bunker´ for you American sitcom fans) in the early afternoon, relieved ro find that here you really could park anywhere free of charge; parking restrictions don´t apply at weekends.

The helpful hostel owner seemed slightly nonplussed that we were only staying in town for one night, but nevertheless suggested a mass of local activities. The one that immediately appealed was a meandering walk out of town and up Bluff Hill, a local viewpoint which looks out over the bay and one of New Zealand´s busiest ports. Not so on this Saturday; it looked deserted.

The walk was a pleasant way to fill our only afternoon here, and helped to build our appetite. A fruitless search for a no-longer existent pub made us even hungrier and as the evening wore on we found our way to a small but extremely good steak house before retiring for the night.