Part 47 - Wandering about Napier

Clive Park and its exceptionally tall trees

Napier is a small city on the east coast of the north island of New Zealand. It's well known for its art deco architecture, mainly because nearly every building was destroyed in an earthquake in 1931 so most buildings date from after it.

Houses on stilts

Quite a lot of the houses, including my Air BnB, are built on stilts. I'm no architect - but apparently it is more stable during my earthquakes. Speaking of my accommodation, my German hosts were absolutely delightful - giving me lifts and cups of tea, and going out of their way to make me feel at home. Their house was at the top of a hill and surrounded by greenery. 

I loved their garden. As did the bitey insects :(

They also had a regular feathered visitor - a Tūī. Wikipedia describes them as a "boisterous middle-sized bird". 

Not sure why they feed him pints. No wonder he gets boisterous.

If you climb to the top of Bluff Hill, you get great views over the harbour and the town.

Napier is visited by 3-4 cruise ships each week. None of these ships are cruise ships btw.

More houses on stilts

Napier really is a lovely city to wander about, and all the people are very friendly and polite (everyone seems to ask you how you're doing). I visited the Centennial Gardens ...

This used to be a quarry

... and the gardener apologised for the fountain not working. I pointed out that if he hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known there was a fountain, so he apologised for that too. I also had dinner in a pub with a pub quiz and decided to take part, and another table took pity on me and asked me if I'd like to join their team. I bet they regretted their kindness when I didn't have a clue about any of the New Zealand questions and confidently insisted that Qatar borders 2 countries. 

I also found a cracking abandoned building overlooking the ocean, but sadly, there was no way into it, so I just had to admire it from the outside. 

Abandoned nurses' home

First abandoned swimming pool I've seen

Up next, still in Napier, where I take a trip to a gannet colony, go to Napier Jail (as a visitor), and most thrillingly, take part in my second wettest ever parkrun.