Last Post of 2014 from Kiwi Land

As I write this we are waiting to leave and fly home. This will be a summary blog of our last few days here.

We made it to Hanmer Springs having giving a lift to a French architect who was walking the tracks from the far north of New Zealand to the far south. We only climbed a little hill in Reefton.

The snow was not there when we went to bed

Then we travelled on to Christchurch. At New Brighton the sky was blue, but the roads reflected the earthquake damage. We then drove on to Governors Bay. The hail was heavy and sharp. We got to our motel just as the heavens opened and continued through the next day, accompanied by damaging winds up to 138 kph. This was a 100 year event.

The next day we visited the city and went on a bus tour.  As it was pancake day we had a lunch of pancakes but they came with bacon, banana and maple syrup. The earthquake damage was significant. We got soaked walking through the city to the cardboard cathedral. There is no shelter on the walk. There are no buildings except in 'Restart' where we got cash.

The following day the rain continued and roads began to flood, the wind was still strong but the plane took off. The weather in Auckland was so different.

On Thursday we were back to our normal routine which was shopping, a paddle and watching the after school netball.

In the evening we went for a final visit to our friends Stefan and Debbie. He was travelling through Christchurch three hours before us on a visit to Invercargill. He is very hopeful of getting a job as a metallurgist in the large aluminium plant there. 

Making a card decoration for Zoe's birthday cake took me most of the morning. Once more we walked down to St Heliers.

There was an early start on Saturday as we all prepared to go to Zoe's birthday party. This was at a place called 'Jump' It was a large area of trampolines. On the way back we had lunch at a 'Coffee Club' after buying kapok at Spotlight.

Once again the house was busy early. Zoe was out at a sleep over, but Sally and Ian were busy getting ready for a barbecue when staff from Sally's office were calling in after they had completed 'Around the Bays'. We drove off to church and after coffee and a good conversation we went to Sylvia Park to purchase our presents to take home.

 I went with Ian to pick up Zoe at Riverhead. The four adults went off to Auckland to have dinner at a Japanese restaurant where the chefs cooked dinner on a hot plate at your table.

Sally was the only one to catch a piece of egg in her mouth.

On Monday we started to pack and take final photographs.

Emily, Sally, Zoe and Ian

Today the packing continues. When the cleaners came in we went down to St Heliers to take the last library book back and a last paddle. Now we wait.

Napier - Part 1

Napier, having a population of over 50,000 is designated a city. It is on the sweeping Hawkes Bay. It was planned as a town in 1854, but in 1931 it was virtually destroyed by an earthquake reading 7.9 on the Richter scale.

Most of the buildings before 1931 were destroyed by fire, but over two years the town was rebuilt during the peak years of the Art Deco style.

Unfortunately it would seem that this country has little concern with history. I have seen it written that nothing here is worth preserving because it is not old enough. There are many Art Deco features in Napier, but much has been allowed to come into disrepair, destroyed or modified.

We, that is Sally, Ian, Zoe, Emily, mum and I flew in to the town on a twin prop plane. This makes it the first time that mum and I have ever flown on anything other than a jet.

The girls travelled quite well. It would be the first plane ride that Zoe would remember. Emily perhaps won't remember this trip quite the same.



The flight took us over some rather bleak ranges.




I am always pleased with the detail of my aerial photographs taken without image stabilization using a standard lens. The following image is a very clear one of the moment when the wheels touched down.

The plane landed on the tarmac of the small domestic airport and we were soon through.

After the flight we were in convoy of cars. Ian had the SAT NAV in the red Toyota Camry and so I followed behind, with mum, in the silver Camry and parked outside our holiday home. Both cars had air con and automatic gears. This was in a very quiet area 'near the airport'. The open Pacific Ocean was a short walk over a browned grass and a gravel beach. From the horizon their was nothing but water between us and America. It was a peaceful ocean at this point.

Napier has a reputation for being sunny and dry. But, that did not take into account the arrival of the rain gods from Nottingham. I did try to persuade the grateful residents to bow down and worship us and bring offerings of gold. The chap next door just laughed.

Out accommodation was good. Mum and I had the upper floor with a bed sit room, en suite and balcony. The Clark family had two bedrooms off the kitchen, lounge and spa bath area.This arrangement worked well.

This is our room with balcony looking over the sea.

Once we were settled I drove out to Napier with mum, Sally and Zoe. We got to the sea front where there were certainly Art Deco signs. The central promenade gardens were like many UK seaside towns.

The beach that we saw was somewhat disappointing, being made of grey gravel that was just becoming black sand grains. Zoe enjoyed this and mum enjoyed collecting the white drift wood that was prevalent on the beach.

We made a visit to a shop called . Here we came face to face for the first time with deadly 'possum'; destroying scourge of the kiwi bird in the country. This group were on top of a mini singing of their victories.

On our return we came upon a beautiful example of Art Deco. This was labelled 'National Tobacco Company'; being known as the from the 1950. It is now a gymnasium. Cool!!! I made a return a visit on Thursday and was able to photograph some of the interior.

I finished the day with a photograph of Napier Harbour taken from our balcony.