NEW ZEALAND
A long long time ago we were making a decision on a trip to Australia, do we split our time and go to New Zealand as well as Australia, or spend more time down under. We chose Australia, and New Zealand has been on our travel list ever since. Finally a series of events would see us travel to the land of Kiwis some 20 years later. Last year we made friends with Susan from New Zealand on our Russian trip, and when a too-good-to-pass-up flight deal popped up in our Inbox we thought we needed to go and visit her.
There was that aspect, but also the fact that it was snowing in Vancouver (it rarely snows in Vancouver), and it was damn cold, and we needed to go somewhere much warmer, perhaps a country that has summer in February... that's New Zealand. Our house-sitter could deal with the cold temperatures and shoveling driveways while we were gone.
NORTH ISLAND
(click to enlarge)
2/18 - 2/20
There's a few oddities with traveling to the other side of the world, Not just driving on the left side of the road, but being on the opposite side of the equator you have flipped seasons. The biggest oddity is that we would leave on a Sunday for a 14 hour direct flight, but not arrive until Tuesday morning.
It also turns out that Mother Nature thought it would be hilarious that if we left the cold and snow of Canada, that we should arrive in New Zealand on the same day that Cyclone Gita would hit that country. Haha, very funny Mother Nature, very frickin funny.
Auckland
We arrived very very early in the morning to Auckland, and our friend Susan had booked a room at the Novotel Airport Hotel, so we could just walk across the street and have a short nap before waking up at 9:00am to go exploring the city.
Auckland Harbour
Auckland harbour is an interesting and bustling place, everything from the historic boat that won the Americas cup race in the 90's, to shark buses, and just a ton of construction going on.
While Norine and Susan are admiring the motorcycles, I'm noticing oddities like a Russian restaurant in Auckland.
I'm also noticing that all the Harbour Cruises have been canceled, something about storms coming in and going on 3 hour tours. I guess our touring of the city would all be land based, so we wound our way back up the hill to the infamous Auckland SkyTower.
The Skytower is 328 metres (1,076 ft) tall, making it the tallest freestanding structure in the Southern Hemisphere. Unfortunately with the cyclone coming in it is a bit cloudy and grey, but still great views from up that high.
We could almost see Susan, who said there was no way she was going up in that tower. Probably best as we could feel the tower swaying with the storm winds, and for someone thats not cool with heights, that 'might' be a problem..
From Skytower Susan loaded us in her car, and took us up the Auckland coast a bit to the Mission Bay area. If the sun was shining, this would be a really beautiful area, much like Kits Beach in Vancouver.
We stopped for a bite and a drink, and the cyclone started coming in, we ended our tiki tour, and headed back to the hotel as the winds were really picking up, and the rain was becoming torrential. A night in at the hotel, it had a nice restaurant so all was good.
2/21
The next morning we woke up to sunshine after a night of learning all the ins-and-outs of Cricket and "The Chase" game show. After breakfast I walked across the street to the airport and picked up our rental car. Traveler Tip: remember to bring your passport when renting a car in a foreign country. We loaded up our little Holden Astra, and drove up the North coast towards the Bay of Islands.
It seems like there is a lot of tourists in New Zealand right now, especially popular are the wildly painted vehicles we would see all around the country. I am guessing that cuts down on vehicle thefts, as it's pretty easy to spot these cars.
One of our first bathroom stops was the cute little historic town of Puhoi, a Bohemian settlement, with a church dating back to 1881.
The roads along this stretch are very scenic, it's a bit weird that their main highways are one lane in each direction. I got used to driving on the Left (wrong) side of the road pretty quick, but keep turning on the windshield wiper instead of the turn signal.
It's great spending time with our local Kiwi friend, but so far it seems everyone is very nice, even had a chat with these local car enthusiasts who were in the middle of a car rally, and stopping for some refreshments. There's some cool old cars in this part of the world.
Our next scenic stop was the very pretty Whangarei Falls, a short little trail to the falls, and most importantly, very clean bathrooms.
Paihia
We arrived in the town of Paihia, part of the Bay of Islands region, around 4:00, and went straight to the T.I. or iSite to find a room. This has always worked well for us in the past traveling through Europe, but it turns out everybody in New Zealand must have headed North when the cyclone came in. The only place she could find was a 2 bedroom apartment at the Ramada Edgewater Palms. It was expensive, but boy was it nice. A little cool pool time was a nice way to end a day of driving.
All refreshed, we headed out into the town to wander for a bit and get some dinner. This country would freak out some Americans with their all-inclusive bathrooms.
Paihia is such a cute little beach town, lots of statues and art, even their parking barriers are nautical themed.
We found a great restaurant, right on the water, the CBK Craft Bar & Kitchen. This was where we were treated to a Kiwi specialty, the Stone Grill. Your selection of meat or seafood is served to you on a glowing hot stone, and you slice and cook the food at your table. It's a good thing there is no tipping in New Zealand, cause I cooked my own meal, but damn it was good.
And how can you top a Stone Grill meal with cold refreshments while watching the sunset over the water?
2/22
We could have stayed much longer in Paihia (assuming we could get a place), but our destination was much further North, in fact about as North as you can go in New Zealand. So the 3 of us piled in the Holden and hit the Highway.
A few stops along the way we passed the beautiful beaches of Doubtless Bay.
Ninety Mile Beach
After a couple nice stops at beaches along the way, we cut over to the West Coast, and visited Ninety Mile Beach. It is officially designated as a public highway, and although it's called Ninety Mile Beach, it's actually just 88 kilometers (55 miles) long.
The sign is a little intimidating, but how can you not take the opportunity to drive your rental car on this "public highway"?
Cape Reinga
At the far northern end of Ninety Mile Beach is Cape Reinga, you can't drive further North than this in New Zealand.
The lighthouse at Cape Reinga was built in 1941, replacing a lighthouse located on nearby Motuopao Island, which had been built 1879.
Cape Reinga is considered the separation marker between the Tasman Sea to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east. From the lighthouse it is possible to watch the tidal race, as the two seas clash to create unsettled waters just off the coast.
Te Paki Giant Sand Dunes
Just a short distance away from Cape Reinga is the Te Paki Giant Sand Dunes, a popular destination for sandboarding, which is basically surfing or body-boarding down the slopes of the giant sand dunes.
A barefoot walk across a little creek and you instantly have the feel of being in the desert, it's hot, the sand is blowing, and you instantly regret not bringing a water bottle for the short hike. Later that day I would be applying sunburn meds to my neck and arms.
For some reason we thought there would be accommodations at Cape Reinga, but it's all just park, so we worked our way back down the West coast to the town of Kaitaia. Once again we ran into trouble getting a place at the iSite, this time for a different reason. Apparently there was a giant wedding in town, and all the hotels/Motels and B&B's were booked up.
While calling around, the girl at the desk found a guy, who just happened to have a house outside of town that was available. Norine got on the phone with him to make arrangements, and right away he says "I can tell you're a Canadian, you guys are always so nice to deal with".
Ahipara
It was about a 20 minute drive to the coastal village of Ahipara, and the Foreshore Lodge... I think we lucked out on this one, a big house with a 2 bedroom suite and wonderful views of the Ahipara Bay.
Also recommended to us by the Lodge manager was the nearby Bayview Restaurant. It didn't look like much on the top floor of a motel, but it was quaint, the owner was hilarious, and you couldn't beat the view of the bay, hence the name. I couldn't turn down another opportunity to have a Stone Grill dinner, and went for the Surf n' Turf.
While we were eating dinner we saw two cars load up with wedding guests/members, holy crow, how big was this wedding anyways?
The only thing that could make the evening better was a stroll down a quiet beach during sunset.
2/23
Having learned our lesson about getting a room when you arrive, we booked a place in Coramandel for the next night. From our beach front lodge we decided to take a different route back South towards Auckland, This side of the Northland was much more forested and wild.
In order to continue South it meant taking a small car ferry to the very small blink-and-you'll-miss-it-town of Rawene.
It's an interesting route away from the Cow and Sheep farms, we even passed rolling sand dunes on the edge of the Tasman Sea.
Waipoua Forest
Waipoua Forest preserves some of the best examples of kauri forest remaining in New Zealand. It is notable for having two of the largest living kauri trees, Tane Mahuta and Te Matua Ngahere. Tane Mahuta is a giant kauri tree, its age is unknown but is estimated to be between 1,250 and 2,500 years. It is the largest kauri known to stand today. Te Matua Ngahere is also a giant kauri tree, although not as massive or tall as its neighbour Tane Mahuta, Te Matua Ngahere is stouter, with a girth just over 16 metres (52 ft). It is believed to be the second largest living kauri tree,[2] and to have the biggest girth of any kauri in the country.
They are very protective of people entering the forest area, and you have to walk through a shoe tread wash machine to enter the trails.
After finishing the hike and washing our shoe treads again, we got in our car and continued on, noticing part way that we had a stowaway on our windscreen. He covered the entire length of the windshield, and was seen again later heading towards the back window before taking his final flight. We like to think we gave him his greatest adventure ever, RIP Steve the slug.
We stopped in the bustling town of Dargaville for lunch, the town reminded me a lot of Mission, BC. But Mission doesn't have a blah, blah, blah... cafe/bar...
It was a funky cafe with 'unique' art like this amazingly lifelike painting of a 57 Chevy. Norine really had to stop me from buying it and bringing it home. The food was really good, the smoothies were yummy, just took forever to pay the bill because their takeout window was so busy.
Sometimes you know you've been on the road too long when you start seeing fruit waving at you as you drive by. The long drive became a really long drive, when we hit the traffic through Auckland. It's a pretty view of the skyline as you sit on the bridge stuck in traffic.
For whatever reason it was particularly bad and it took an extra couple of hours to finally get to the far side of Auckland towards the town of Thames where we would drop Susan off. This meant some late nigh driving on the windy road to Coramandel Peninsula
Beautiful sunset over Susan's home in Thames
Whitianga
We didn't arrive at Cooks Beach resort in Whitianga (pronounced Fit-ee-ang-guh) until just before 9:00. Feeling secure that we had already booked a place, we were a little distressed to find the office closed and no-one answering the doorbell. There was a # on the door, but my phone had been on airplane mode since we left, to avoid roaming charges. Luckily another car pulled up, and a fellow Canadian from Toronto needed somewhere to stay. I told him to call the number and tell them we were there too, so he did. Boy did we get the gears when she came down to let us in. "You're late!, I was just about to go to bed!" I just told her thats what us Canadians are like.
2/24
The place was cute, it was like a little cabin, when I opened the door in the morning, a chicken tried to come in, and 2 ducks followed me to my car... I guess to make sure I put the luggage in safely?
Our extra long drive taking a different route, and traffic in Auckland kind of spoiled our stay in Coramandel as it would have been nice to have more time at the Cook Beach Resort.
Hot Water Beach
I wasn't completely sure what to expect at this place, but we had to go check it out. You can rent a shovel from the lifeguard station, and then you head down the large beach. As you look down the beach, you see a cluster of people, and steam rising in the air, hmmmm.
At low tide, as you walk along the sand, you can feel the temperature change, and when you think you've found a good place, you start digging. Within a few minutes your hole is filling with water, not just any water... too hot to leave your feet in water. Apparently part of the game is to find the spots between the really hot spots and cooler spots. We abandoned our first hole as it was way too hot, and went closer to the shoreline, we still ended up with a boiling hot hole of water, but it was cooled down by the waves rolling in.
It was a very fun morning, moving between our human sacrifice pit and the cooler ocean waters, and watching other people make the same mistake. Of course there was local experts who dug in a cool spot, then created a trench from a hot pool to create warm bathing pools, but who has the time or patience (or back stamina) for that?
It was time to move on, we had hobbits to go see, so we dried off, shook the sand out, and headed South of the Coromandel Peninsula. Of course we had to stop at all the Scenic Overlooks, some easier to get into than others.
Apparently "World Famous in New Zealand", Susan had introduced us to L&P, also known as Lemon & Paeroa. It's a sweet soft drink manufactured in New Zealand. Created in 1907, it was traditionally made by combining lemon juice with carbonated mineral water from the town of Paeroa. So, as we passed through the town, we had to stop for some lunch and a drink of L&P.
Matamata/Hobbiton
There isn't much to the town of Matamata, it's basically just a tourist stop to get to the Hobbiton Film set, but you know you are in the right place when you see the i-Site Tourist information building. I had a bit of a nervous breakdown when I went to the counter and asked about going to the film set, "If you don't already have a reservation, it is all booked up for the day", I think she felt bad for me when she saw my face, and said "how many are you, two, ok let me see what I can do". The girl made a couple calls and asked if 4:20 was too late for us. WHEW!
It's a 15 minute drive from the town of Matamata to the film set. They have a little tourist waiting area with some basic shops, food and bathrooms, so you wait around, until it's your tour time. We quickly bonded with another couple waiting, when we all had a reaction of horror to an Asian man that did a big snort and then horked into a garbage can. They were from Nelson at the north end of the South Island of New Zealand... We talked for a while, and next thing you know we were invited to stay at their place when we traveled down that way. The people of New Zealand are very friendly, or we just met a couple swingers. The woman put her # in my phone and off they went on their tour.
Our time had come, and we loaded on to our bus for the 2 minute drive over to the actual movie set from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. As soon as you see the rolling hillside, you know why Peter Jackson chose this area to be The Shire. This farmland was discovered in 1998 and temporarily constructed as the sets for the Shire scenes at the beginning and end of Lord of the Rings. There was thirty-nine hobbit holes created, and aside from the farmer bringing in people for personal tours in a mini-van, the sets were slowly turning back to farmlands. When The Hobbit was filmed in 2009, the deal was made that they would be re-built as permanent structures and maintained as a tourist destination allowing millions to come back and visit The Shire.
From the moment you walk into The Shire, you would swear you are inside the movie, it's not just certain angles, or fronts... the whole village has been created and grown here. I may include a few more pics here than I normally would.
There was just so much detail in this village, each hobbit home was different, each garden had a hint to the occupation of the inhabitant.
The bench where Gandalf talks to the hobbit, complete with pipe
Samwise Gamgee's home in The Lord of the Rings
Frodo and Bilbo Baggins home
From Hobbiton we walk down the hill past the Party Tree and to the Water, home of the famous Green Dragon pub.
We were invited inside and given a free drink of Cider, Mead, Beer or Ginger Beer.
It's always interesting to hear funny stories about "Hollywood magic", the leaves that were attached to the trees, plums that were wired to apple trees to match the story better, and Peter Jackson not liking the look of all the thousands of sheep surrounding the farms. So he shipped in hundreds of Black face sheep just for the scenes that had the sheep in them... do you remember those scenes?
After enjoying our refreshments and a snack, we were loaded back on our bus and taken back to the shops. From Hobbiton, we wound our way to the Geo-Thermal centre of New Zealand... Rotorua.
Rotorua
As soon as you start getting within about 10 kilometers of the city, you can start to smell the sulfur, this town stinks.
Our pre-booked accommodations in Rotorua were at the Santa Maria motel. We rolled into town, and pulled into the reception area at the 1960's style motel, and I went to check-in. The owner says, ok, just follow me in your car, and I'll take you to the place... I says Pardon? We follow him 2 minutes in to a suburban area, and arrive at a 4 bedroom house. We have the entire place for 2 nights at less than the cost of a cheap motel. Him and his wife bought it as a future home when he sells the motel, but for now, it's ours!
2/25
One of the challenges when traveling the world is learning enough of the different languages so that you can have basic communication to get where you need to go, and ask what you need to ask. New Zealand was no different, they pronounce all their vowels, and they pronounce them different. A=uh, E=i (as in it), I=eye, O=oh, U=eww. True examples that made us laugh everytime... Do you have troubles with Pests, Pest control (pronounced PIST)... Need your deck covered (pronounced DICK). But the topper of it all is that the "WH" is pronounced as an F, so Whitianga is pronounced "Fittee-ang-guh". Our next locale made this a little more humourous...
Whakarewarewa
Whakarewarewa living village, pronounced "Fuck-uh-riwuh-riwuh", it took me almost the entire trip before I could pronounce that one right. It is called the Living Village, because it is actually an entire town that is still full of local residents living in this Geo-thermal village. They use the steam to heat their homes, water and cook their food, and you are wandering around peoples actual homes, amongst these historic sights.
Every where inside Rotorua smells like sulfur, but after a while you kind of get used to it. It took a long while to go nose blind to that smell once you crossed the bridge and entered the village.
From here you have an overlook of the Pohutu and Prince of Wales geyser, as well as the bluey's lake, named after the amazing blue colour of the water.. Swimming in the lake is reserved for village residents only
At the farthest end of the village where the overview of the Geyser is, you find an ominous gate with 2 totems overlooking, on the other side of the securely locked gate is our next stop, the Geo-Thermal park known as Te Puia.
Te Puia
Te Puia spans 70 hectares within the Whakarewarewa Geothermal Valley, and is much more parklike with a focus on the Maori culture.
Te Puia was also the only place where we would see a live Kiwi, they have a nocturnal exhibit with red lighting so you can barely see the flightless chicken sized birds wandering around the enclosure. We learned that they lay the largest egg in comparison to body size of any bird in the world. They are endangered in New Zealand, somewhat due to logging, but mainly due to cats, ferrets and stoats that are eating their eggs or attacking baby Kiwis.
Kiwi, the birdKiwi, the fruit
The park is full of strange and beautiful landscapes, but it is also very dangerous. Not only are many of the gases being emitted stinky, they are also flammable, and some of these boiling pools are so hot that they are used to cook food.
Scattered throughout the park is carved wooden Maori totems known as pou whenua (land post), used to mark territorial boundaries or places of significance. Part of our exploration of Te Puia was looking for them in the forest.
Põhutu ('poor-hoo-too') is the largest active geyser in the southern hemisphere. She erupts once or twice every hour and sometimes reaches heights of 30 metres (100 feet). Põhutu means 'constant splashing' in Maori.
Everything from crystal blue and green lakes, to just lakes of boiling mud, this place was fascinating.
Tarewara lake
After spending the morning in Geo-thermal parks, we drove north of Rotorua to Tarewara Lake, and a recommended lunch stop, the Landing Cafe. It was a cute little lunch spot with tables overlooking the lake and the volcano Mount Tarewara. It would have been perfect if not for a couple untrained kids behind us; whining, crying, yelling, clunking, thumping, throwing, running around, banging into chairs... aaargh!
Te Wairoa
Te Wairoa aka Buried Village was a Maori and European settlement founded in 1848 where visitors would stay on their way to visit the world famous Pink and White Terraces. The Pink and White Terraces were destroyed and the village was buried by the eruption of the Mount Tarawera volcano on June 10, 1886. 120 people died in the eruption.
Although the story was interesting, the walk through the archaeological site was boring, they tried to spice it up with printed letters from one of the locals... that got a little tiring pretty quick. However, the Wairere Falls walk was very nice.
Blue & Green lakes
Tikitapu, the Blue Lake, is the closest to Rotorua and its clear, clean crystal blue water is popular with boaters, swimmers and water skiers. The Green Lake - Rotokakahi, is very sacred (tapu) to the Rotorua Te Arawa people so there is no fishing, boating or swimming. From a viewpoint you can see both at the same time, but pictures and afternoon sun just don't do the colours justice.
Skyline
We had a bit of a rest back at our place, and then headed up to the Skyline gondola. It's a mix of a ski-lift style gondola combined with a number of different adrenaline style activities, topped off with a nice buffet style restaurant. Reservations recommended!
Tourist trap photo, people inside gondola not to scale
As you go up the mountainside you can see the winding race track of the Luge, there is three different tracks for varying difficulty or thrill levels. We had to try it, and did a couple runs to try the different tracks. Basically it is a very simple go-cart with bike-like steering and pulling back on the steering slows you down. Some parts of the track are pretty steep, so you get some good speed going if you want to.
Once you reach the finish line, you push your luge onto a conveyor, board an open gondola, and your whisked back up to the top with your luge cart dangling below you for the next person to take their turn.
The highlight of the night was the Stratosfare restaurant, one of the most diverse buffet meals I have ever seen. All the highest end cuts of meat and seafood, a wide variety of salads, vegetables and a big assortment of ethnic foods such as curries, sushi and dim sum. Our multiple trips to the plate dispenser were only topped by the sunset view over Lake Rotorua.
Redwood forest
Our stomachs full, we headed back down and decided to take in the new Redwood Forests nightlights treewalk exhibit. Established in 1901 as an experiment to test the suitability of different native and exotic forest species for commercial planting, they planted a giant Californian Redwood forest here. The nightlight treewalk consists of a series of 23 suspension bridges between 22 majestic 115-year-old Redwood trees, and its lit up with lights as you move from massive Redwood tree to Redwood tree.
Apparently they won a huge government grant to install thousands of lights and lanterns to make it a late night attraction... expecting something like the Capilano Suspension bridge Christmas nights, we were sadly disappointed. Someone may want to do a tax audit.
That was a long day of adventure in Rotorua, time to head back to our place, decide which of the 4 bedrooms to sleep in and get some rest.
2/26
From Rotorua we returned the keys to our lovely house, and headed South towards the Pacific coast. Since we hadn't seen enough Geo-Thermal activity, we stopped at Wai-O-Tapu Thermal wonderland. As we drove up, there was a huge lineup and chaos for the Lady Knox geyser, every day at 10:15 they add soap to the geyser and everyone can ooh and ahh as it erupts. The chaos is that you have to drive into the visitor centre, get your ticket, then drive back down the road to get to the geyser. We got parking right near the visitor centre, and skipped the geyser mayhem, we had already seen the biggest geyser the day before.
Wai-O-Tapu
Wai-O-Tapu means Sacred Waters, and is one of the most colourful and diverse volcanic areas in New Zealand.
The Devil's Home and Rainbow Crater are examples of collapsed craters.
The Devil's Ink Pots are a series of mud pools, and indicate just how creative they were in naming these areas.
The Artists Palette, a mix of hot and cold pools and steaming waters create a huge variety of changing colours.
The trails and Boardwalk wind around a series of volcanic pools and provide pretty lake views.
Well, some pretty, and some not so pretty.
The contrast between the different areas was stunning, colorful waters to muddy sludge, and vice-versa.
So many unique elements here, from unique colours, unique textures and just unique things.
The Champagne Pool is a fifth of a hectare of bubbling, hissing water with an ochre coloured petrified edge.
You'll never guess what this giant yellow pool is called, that's right... The Devil's Bath.
On our way out of the park, we detoured to The Mud Pools, they are the largest in New Zealand, just a picture doesn't do it's bubbling and belching mud justice, so I had to include a video.
Having seen those mud pools in action, we could leave this volcanic region, and head further South. On our way to find the Huka Falls we came across this strange little place, apparently it's a prawn fishing theme park. You pay your money, you fish for prawns in man-made lagoons, and then you cook and eat them.
Huka falls
The very very blue Huka Falls are a set of waterfalls on the Waikato River that drains Lake Taupo. Probably most interesting is that the falls featured in a national scandal in 1989, when the body of a cricket umpire was found downstream with his wrists and ankles bound. The resulting investigation exposed the Auckland bondage scene. Dominatrix Renee Chignall was acquitted of his murder after three trials.
I didn't know there was an Auckland bondage scene, did you?
Napier
We arrived in the famously Art Deco town of Napier in Hawke's Bay in the afternoon, just as it started to rain! We made the assumption the night before that we would just take our chances at the iSite and see what they would have for rooms. Once again, we got the "everything is pretty full" face from the lady at the desk, but she found us a nice room right across the street at the Art Deco Masonic hotel. This hotel was built in 1932, after the original Masonic hotel from 1861 was burned to the ground in 1896 and then for the second time in 1931.
The entire hotel, from carpets to wallpaper had a truly roaring twenties feel to it, we were staying in a time capsule. I'm not sure this 56 Chevy car ornament was period correct for the Art Deco scene, but the fact it was in our room just seemed right to me.
It was still pouring rain, so we bought a couple souvenir umbrellas, and waited for a little while before doing the historic town walk. Turns out staying in a time capsule does have some downsides... Not only did our historic toilet leak, but it seems as if our room was right above a bar or dance hall, music is blaring, people are hooting and hollering, and the non-insulated/soundproof floors are vibrating.
We told them about our toilet and asked at the front desk, it turns out that some business has rented the hall and is having an event, right below our room... they promise us it will be over by 10, we'll see. They did offer us free breakfast for the inconvenience of the toilet leak and the noise. We decided not to stay in the noisy room and luckily it stopped raining enough that we didn't need to use the umbrellas.
We bought a self-guided walking guide from the iSite, wandered around the waterfront, and then started exploring.
With our newly purchased guide in hand, we learned all about the history of Napier, and what makes this an Art Deco town. It definitely had the look of a Roaring Twenties town, but the first question is "What the hell is Art Deco?"
"Art Deco identifies the name given to the decorative style which had been gestating from around 1905 and burst upon the world at The International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, held in Paris in 1925"
So why is Napier an Art Deco town? At 10:47am on February 3rd, 1931 a 7.8 Magnitude earthquake destroyed Napier, and all but a few buildings were gone. In 2 years time, the town was rebuilt, all using the Art Deco style; geometric, usually angular patterns and shapes such as zig-zags, lightning flashes, prancing women and the rising sun. 164 buildings were built in that time period and 140 of them remain.
You didn't have to spend a lot of time figuring out what era the buildings were from, or what year they were built, because pretty much every single building was built in 1932 or 1933.
Everything was quaint, the town square with its flowers, the streets, the shops, the manhole covers... I'm not so sure about Headstone World fitting into this town though. I probably just need to filter more photos out of my blog.
Amongst the history there was some signs of modern influences, such as some art walls and colourful graffiti.
As the sun set over this lost-in-time town, we had a nice dinner, took a seaside walk, and called it a night. When we got back to our room, the party was over, and we were able to have a very peaceful nights sleep in the Art Deco Masonic Hotel.
2/27
In the morning we ate our free breakfast, and left this historic town behind to head towards New Zealand's capital city of Wellington. Right across the street is two vintage cars, it just seemed right before driving down the palm tree lined boulevard.
We had to make a detour through the mountains as the highway was closed. It slowed us down a bit, but gave us an opportunity to experience more narrow windy roads and see the wind driven electric system they have across the ridge of this mountain range.
Wellington
Once again we learned our lesson and had pre-booked a place to stay in the capital of New Zealand. If anywhere could be booked up, it would be here. We found a nice room at a decent price, and were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the QT Museum Hotel.
This place is a little bit crazy, but completely awesome at the same time.
The lobby and hallways are like a modern museum with very odd but interesting displays, a giant cow made out of meat tins greets you as you board the elevator. I'm sure the gun and skull in glass was making a statement, I'm just not sure what.
The rooms were very nice, with modern touches combined with a sense of humour. Most importantly the room had one of the most comfortable beds we have ever slept on. Apparently it's a custom QT Gel bed, made just for the hotel chain.
Arriving early in Wellington I booked a tour at the world famous Weta Cave, home of Peter Jackson's special effects and props team. We would learn that they do effects and props for almost anybody, but the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit pieces are their Pièce De Résistance.
You certainly can't miss the building with their giant trolls out front.
It's almost worthwhile just to wander around their main shop with all the displays that they have from so many different movies.
The tour of their workshop areas was interesting, although I don't understand why they wouldn't allow photos to be taken. Maybe it was because if you saw the photos you wouldn't bother to sign up for the tour? The most interesting part was talking to one of their employees who makes the armour and chain mail for so many movies, funny to find out that they import the individual chain mail links from Saskatchewan in Canada. We saw behind the scenes of how they create some props the old fashioned way, some props using molds and casts, and a lot more is being done using 3D printers and computer carving machines.
I'm not sure how many of you may remember the Thunderbirds TV show from the late 60's... It was a marionette based hero series featuring the 5 Tracy brothers saving the world week after week. Well it has been resurrected into a Thunderbirds are Go! TV series, updated to look just like the old series, and in a lot of cases using the same "find what ever waste and recycled pieces you can" to make the sets.
Although it may look like I'm having a good time, it was not only a waste of money to be driven to the sound studio where all the sets are, the tour was a complete waste of our time. There is so many other things in Wellington we could have gone to see instead of wasting 2 hours here learning how they used an orange juicer, and identifying old electronics.
A chunk of our day wasted, we headed back into Wellington harbour and wandered along the waterfront.
Wellington is an interesting Capital city, with it's mix of beach, historical homes and buildings and modern structures. Our favourite moment was walking the beach and seeing a boat go by with a full brass band playing a variety of songs. Whether it was practice, or planned entertainment, it was to just sit and listen.
The evening was topped off with a very nice dinner at a Romantic Italian restaurant (at least that's what the sign said). We still aren't sure what the Monsoon Poon building was, all the windows were closed, could be anything, right?
2/28
After an amazing nights sleep on the worlds most comfortable bed, we woke up early and headed over to the Ferry Terminal. Today we would take the Interislander Ferry to Picton, the Northernmost point on the South Island.
Due to worries about damages to their cars, we had to drop our little Holden off at the Ferry Terminal, and we would get a 'new one' on the other side. Kind of a pain, but it did save us $200 on the ferry tickets.