New Zealand, Part 4
3 Dec 2004
Today we drove from Wellington to Napier, on NZ2 to NZ50. The first part of this drive on NZ2 was incredibly winding and hilly. The maps we were using were a bit deceptive, but some of the climbs up and down had to be 10-12% again. This was a tiring drive. And then the second part of the drive was very windy and the camper was really being pushed around. This was the day that the weather service said there were 7 meter swells and the ferry ride would have been awful. So we were all tired or driving by the time we got to Napier. The web site will tell you a lot more than I can here, but I will say that the city was smashed by a large earthquake in 1931 and then mostly rebuilt in the Art Deco style. There are still dozens (hundreds?) of these buildings downtown. Napier is a sunny warm city on the east side of the north island, so it definitely felt like summer while we were there.
I am enclosing a lot of snaps here since I could not decide which of these buildings to exclude.
It's unfortunate that there is so much signage at eye level and above. It really spoils the appearance of some of these buildings. Some of the downtown streets look cluttered, and I think they could do a lot by getting signs down from the level between the 1st and 2nd floors of these buildings and into the store fronts. I tried to select photos that were relatively uncluttered.
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You can see in the last two photos that Christmas is coming. Weird to be walking around in shorts in balmy sunshine with Santa about. Although I will say that there is not nearly the level of Christmas commercialism evident here as there is in the states. Christmas is definitely being celebrated, but it's not so "out there".
We camped overnight in Napier.
4 Dec 2004
Today was a drive from Napier to Rotorua, on NZ2, NZ5. We wanted to go into and through the "geyser country" on the north island and see some of the native Maori culture in Rotorua. On the way to Rotorua we stopped at the "Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland", which by its name you can tell it is a commercial park. There are a lot of bizarre and beautiful pools and mudholes and such here, but it would have been nice to have been able to get closer to some of it for photos. Some of the colors are simply bizarre.
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