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| Me and some Kiwi pals (i.e. they are from New Zealand, not actual kiwis) |
As a fan of the TV show Prisoner Cell Block H, Napier jail was top of my list of things to do, so off I trotted. My first thought was "It's not very big" and it wasn't. But it was interesting, and probably better than Inverary Jail (which is also very good), considering its recent history.
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| The outside of Napier jail. Looks quite nice except the razor wire. |
You get the choice of a historical or a ghost story audio tour. I went with the history one, but I'd have been interested to know how they managed to pad out a whole tour with tales of ghostly apparitions and the like.
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| The outdoor recreation area was very similar to my primary school |
The jail had been used to house the mentally ill and children as young as eight since the 19th century. Later on they realised that wasn't really cricket, but it continued as a jail until the 1990s. There were several gangs housed (and separated) here, and all their graffiti has been left untouched. Interestingly, after it shut as a prison, it operated as a backpackers hostel for several years.
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| Luxury |
During the 1931 earthquake, many of the prisoners helped in the recovery operation and many received pardons as a result. It was also one of the few buildings not to be destroyed in the earthquake, although you can still its effects in the slightly wonky doorframes and corridors.
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| He used to bring me roses ... |
Another highly rated trip was to a gannet colony in nearby Cove Kidnappers (apparently local tribesman kidnapped Captain Cook's cabin boy here, leading to a bit of a stramash and the name of the cove). The tour guide was a nice guy and very knowledgeable, although given his thick Kiwi accent, mask, and the fact he spoke 300 words a minute, the American Horticultural Society (who made up a majority of the tour) and I struggled to make out a word he was saying.
The drive to the colony was very scenic ...
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... and the horticulturists got very excited about the thistles, even more so when I told them they were our national flower.
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| The tour guide wasn't so impressed, branding them as "invasive" |
When we finally reached the colony, there was a collective gasp, as thousands of birds just suddenly appeared in view. Although to be honest, you could smell them before you saw them.
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| These guys have never heard of the adage "Don't shit where you sleep" |
There were thousands of them - the kids were nearly fully grown and kept flapping their wings in training for flying out to Australia for their gap year (three years), then coming back to the colony to breed.
What was most interesting me was their casual indifference to humans. I was standing inches away from them, and they showed neither fear nor curiosity - preferring instead to having a right good squawk.
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| Getting selfies with gannets is not easy |
And finally, just before leaving Napier, I had time to squeeze in a parkrun. The weather (which was so wet it closed Auckland airport) was dire, and given the parkrun was about 6km away, I'd normally have given it a hard pass. However, mein hosts knew a French chap who was driving to it. We were texting each other the morning of the run, both hoping that the other one would cancel but not wanting to be the first to do so. Neither of us did, so off we went. I was soaked before we even set off, but it wasn't wholly unpleasant given it was summer. I now appear on the cover photo of their parkrun (though you can barely make out it's me).
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| Harold Steptoe taking a surprising early lead |
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