Wall to wall sunshine this morning as I drew back the patio door and walked out onto the decking from my bedroom. I sat for a while enjoying the early warmth from the sun.
Today we are leaving Napier but no hurry. First a walk along the promenade, a busy place with lots going on and people on holiday.
The Art Deco flavour came into its own on this bright sunny day and the colours were enhanced against the azure sky.
Even a little old sports car of the period went sailing by at just the right moment!
The black pebbled beach dropped away steeply into the clear blue sea, hence not an ideal place to swim (sadly). But it was just stunning looking across to where we had climbed high up to the Te Mata Peak the day before.
We heard strains of ‘Scarborough Fair’ coming from a gypsy fairground and eventually glimpsed a band playing inside the circle of colourful gypsy vehicles.
A little further on was the National Aquarium of New Zealand and we took the opportunity of checking out the history of fossils and creatures from the sea to the present day. There were some excellent displays of live corel and sea anemones as well as impressive spacious tank tunnels giving the effect of sharks and Stingrays swimming all around you, which indeed they were!
I thought the Piranha fish looked fairly docile but wasn’t going to put them to the test! When a school of piranha are in a feeding frenzy the water appears to boil and turn red with blood. They attack with such ferocity that they strip an animal of its flesh within a matter of minutes, even taking bites out of eachother.
But my favourite has to be the giant turtle and I recalled swimming with a turtle on the Corel Reef at Lady Musgrave Island only a few weeks before.
….and here at last was Nemo!
….a few more images on the way back to the car….
Finally before we could drag ourselves away from sunny Napier, we drove up to Bluff Lookout, high above the Bay with panoramic views of the Harbour and Port where an ocean-going cruiser was birthed. We could also see the airport which was built on the land formed by the earthquake of 1931, once a lagoon. We could also see the extent of the timber waiting to be shipped out (probably for paper-making). Tons and tons of pine tree trunks in neat piles.
We had a bite to eat in the sunshine down by the harbour before finally leaving Hawkes Bay.
One more example of an Art Deco style building on the way out of the harbour. This used to be the well known Rothmans building but now remains as a monument to the era – The National Tobacco Company.
What a difference some sunshine makes for our journey home in contrast to our arrival in the rain! The scenery had come to life and there was Evening Primrose growing on the verges of the road which I hadn’t noticed before. I have only ever seen this in capsule form in a bottle at home! What a pretty wild flower… I really want to paint this!
We finally left the fields of vines, fruit and olive trees behind. Goodbye Hawke’s Bay and thank you for the welcome, an awesome weekend!
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