Napier

Napier - Rebuilt After An Earthquake

My parents had left Auckland to continue their holiday in the more southerly parts of New Zealand, while I had 101 jobs to sort out as I prepared to leave the country in a few weeks. The jobs were boring, the goodbyes were emotional, the parties were hectic and the following week I caught an early morning flight to Wellington. The parents had been travelling the South Island of NZ but had now made it across the pond to the southern tip of the North Island and the countries capital. I had spent a fair amount of time in this windy city but had decided to fly down to Wellington to meet them there because it was cheaper to fly down (just NZ$40 - thats about £24) than get a bus, and I wouldn't have to endure a journey that would make a sane man weep. So I got to Wellington, met up with the parents and we all jumped in a car and headed off on a 4 hour scenic drive. We were going to the eastern part of the North Island, a part of the country which I had not yet seen. Our destination was Napier.

Napier is a port city at the southern end of Hawkes Bay. The city itself is like stepping back to the 1930's with almost every building providing the very recognisable 'art deco' style. The reason for such aesthetics, stems from the fact that in 1931 Napier suffered to the hands of nature when a 7.8M eathquake devastated the town and killed 256 people. The earthquake was the second largest quake ever recorded in New Zealand. Oddly enough just a few weeks ago another 7.8M earthquake struck the Fjordland region of New Zealand's South Island, of which my friend Darren (living in Queenstown and close by to Fjordland - ish) was shaken around the cinema where he was working as he tried to sell Transformers tickets to customers. Although it now falls as joint second largest earthquake ever recorded in NZ along with the Napier disaster, this newly struck earthquake didn't kill a single person.

After the 1931 quake, Napier was rebuilt, almost from scratch, and in fashion at the time, was art deco. As we walked around the town, my parents said it reminded them of Santa Barbara in North America. Napier is a pretty town although would it probably be a bit more lively if it was summer time. It definately appeared to be a summer town tourist spot.

Napier and more specifically - Hawkes Bay, is also gaining a name for itself as one of the world's great wine regions. It's now becoming difficult to travel around New Zealand without stumbling across one of the great wordly wineries, and this place (according to the experts), is one of them. It would certainly suit my father quite nicely. Since I last saw him (a year and a half ago), he has now become what appears to a novice such as myself - to be quite a wine expert - or at least he's certainly an expert at consuming the wine. After a stroll around town and along the sea-front parade where you get a great view of the impressive Hawkes Bay, the Pacific Ocean and for us, a dead fish washed up on the beach, we headed off to taste some of these so called - great wines. My Mum and Dad had just been traveling the Marlborough region and tasted some great alcoholic grapes and you would think that such a tasting could be repeated here. Unfortunately it appeared impossible to find anywhere in Napier that would sell wines from Hawkes Bay. The logic appeared odd to me. I can walk down Southgate high street, in North London, walk into Asda and choose from about 18 different kinds of Hawkes Bay wine, yet here I am, so close to the region that I'm basically swimming in the bay and yet I can't find a single place to wet my palette. I've given up questioning things like this and have just learnt to accept that the world is completely insane and most definately illogical.

We drank our 'house red', went for a nice meal and then called it a night. It was a big day tomorrow. We were heading to a new location. One that was very familiar to me - it was Taupo.......