We had a great few days at Napier.  On first sighting of the place it was very industrial and just a built up town, but the more we saw the more we liked the place.

 

The first day we spent travelling around seeing places.  We went up Bluff Hill lookout and you could see the port and all the activity going on down there – loading of the container ships and masses of sawn wood – not sure where that was all going but there was loads of the stuff.  We then went to the Classic Sheepskin factory.  Met a lovely lady there who took us on a tour.  We were the only ones on the tour which was great.  She showed us the whole process from when the skins came in to when they went out on the shop floor.  It is quite hard work for the people working there but the skins were beautiful at the end.  We were very tempted by them but decided not to bring one home.

 

After that we headed to Arataki honey, they had a wonderful display and a short film all about honey.  The honey was wonderful too!!!

Our next port of call was Te Mata Peak.  You get a 360 view from the top and the weather was clear.  At the top we were treated to a display from a guy who was parasailing from the top.  Watching him was so relaxing and peaceful – he sailed around for about 20 mins before dropping to land – wonderful.

 

 

 

A little walk round the town was next – the town is all in the art deco theme.  this was because the town was destroyed in an earthquake in 1931 and when it was rebuilt they decided to do it this way.  They have kept it to that style and it is great walking around seeing all the buildings.

 

The following day in Napier we took an Odyssey wine tour.  Our tour guide was Gareth and he was lovely – very knowledgeable but not over the top.  In the morning there was only us on the tour and he picked us up in a Range Rover and drove us around all day.  We tried some lovely wines and we bought some wine and port too.  We had a wonderful lunch at The Mission vineyard the birth place of New Zealand wine, established in 1851.  The food was beautiful.  In the afternoon were were joined by two lovely ladies, Karen a doctor from Edinburgh and Christ an educator from Belgium but living in Hong Kong.  We had a great afternoon with them trying more wines, having a lovely food platter and having a great time.  We are looking forward to seeing Christ when we are in Hong Kong in November.  We had a really great day.

 

  

On our final day in Napier we headed to the Botanical Gardens.  We had a lovely walk round – it is beautifully kept. A Geocache was found in the cemetery next door to the gardens. Had a very late breakfast and headed off going south this time and ended our day in Dannevirke on a lovely friendly campsite.