Napier, 2018

We visited Napier in 2014, and were impressed, both with ts history and its architecture, and I did two posts: http://roadeveron.blogspot.co.nz/2014/03/on-to-napier.html, and http://roadeveron.blogspot.co.nz/2014/03/more-napier.html. We were back again this year and stayed at a freedom camp on the beach, again, about a mile down from the city. Much of that mile is walking track, playgrounds, garden, and other civic things. We heard from locals, later, that Napier has become a cruise ship stop. We saw no signs of this during our brief visit, but hope this beautiful and historic little town won't be cruisified the way so many others have been.

For kids learning to ride their bikes: a safe practice track, replete with traffic lights,
signs, rotaries, the works

Thus

Playground

Climbing structures

Gardens

We were about 3 weeks too late for the annual Art Deco
Festival

Napier was leveled by an earthquake and subsequent fire in 1931,
but rebuilt in largely Art Deco style in the years following; much
of the architecture persevered and is now lovingly (and profitably)
cared for

In another city park

Carillon

Art Deco graphic, of course

Still processing this one; someone help me!

Inside the city theater, completed 1938

Costume shoppe

Did I mention the whole Marine Parade, a mile or two, is planted in now-mature
Norfolk Island Pines?

Skateboard facility for little ones

Hastings

Not a word about 1066 here, but a nice quiet-looking town, near Hawkes Bay, surrounded by orchards and vineyards, home to NZ's second-largest wine-producing area. And art deco buildings similar to Napier, a bit further up the coast. Hastings was affected by the same earthquake that leveled Napier, and much of it too was rebuilt in the style prevalent of the 30s. We enjoyed having a nosy.

The afternoon before, March 1st, we camped at the Clifton Beach
Preserve, right above the pounding surf

In a bit of a gale, looking toward Napier

And toward Cape Kidnappers

You gotta be proud

Anyhow, some of more interesting art deco we
saw in Hastings

Main street; like so many off the beaten track NZ towns, it's
a time warp back to the (US) 50s

Love the AD street lamps

Murals right and left too

And sculpture

Clock tower

So how many city park fountains have you seen bisected by RR
tracks?

Piece de resistance

Nice, interesting town

Tui Brewery

After Cape Palliser we decided to stay on the east (Pacific) coast for a while. We had done much of the west coast in 2014, but had never done the east coast much north of Napier (until Coromandel). The east coast is much more sparsely populated, more Maori, but just as scenic, and unhurried. It turned out to be a good choice. After wading through the customary Kiwi sheep drive, and deciding not to visit the New Zealand Stonehenge (to be addressed in the next "Quaint, Curious, Quirky..." post), we stopped for a late lunch at the Tui Brewery, south of Woodville. Tui, I imagine, is to the North Island what Speight's is for the South Island, that is, the national beer. Both have breweries that are fun to visit, Tui particularly, as explained below. We never spend money on brewery tours, BTW, preferring to spend it instead on the beer.

Original brewery

The tour site

Humor everywhere

Several beers on offer

I limited myself to three; they were not memorable, as beers
go; the food was even worse; but that's not why you come here

The decor following a certain theme

In the museum

Informative and amusing

Some years ago Tui's "yeah right" ad campaign was famous
and still remembered

You get the picture

Best of all, the brewery has a billboard where you can create
your own "yeah right" message

There is a smallish brewery on the premises, but I think this
must be like Ben and Jerry's in Vermont, an old or original
site, for tours, while most of the ice cream is made in a huge
modern plant way up the road somewhere; or in some other
country

Part of the tour we eschewed