Art Deco, wine and the capital

On February 3^rd 1931, an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude devastated central Napier as well as causing widespread damage in nearby Hastings and many other areas and 157 people lost their lives. Fires broke out soon after and destroyed most of the buildings that had survived in the Napier business district. By early 1933, the town had been rebuilt which was quite a feat in itself, considering it was the lowest part of the Great Depression, when the building industry had virtually shut down worldwide. The style of the era was Art Deco and Napier has the largest concentration of these buildings in the southern hemisphere. The colours and very styles were lovely:

I especially liked this inset in the pavement, so it can be spotted as you crawl past:

And the view across Hawke’s Bay:

And of course, there were the wineries that we visited, namely Black Barn, Ash Ridge (very nice Sauvignon Blanc and Syrah), Sileni (excellent ‘The Plains’ 2009 Merlot/Cabernet Franc and their 2012 Pinot Noir) and finally Ngatarawa (very nice Glazebrook 2010 Syrah and Reserve 2011 Pinot Noir)

We also visited the NZ National Aquarium and saw the little penguins being fed

From Napier we traveled down through Hastings, where we walked around the town in the pouring rain and saw 90% of Red 2 at the cinema before the projector packed in! We’ll have to find another cinema at some point to find out how the movie ends.

Martinborough was our next stop and over the last 20 years this area has become one of the premier wine growing regions. And what a difference a day makes! We had lovely sunshine in the afternoon so walked to a few wineries and tasted some of the regions wines. Our favourites were Ata Rangi (nice smooth 2009 Syrah), Schubert (very nice 2010 Pinot Noir and a big finish on the 2008 Cabernet/Merlot), and Martinborough Vineyard (a fruity Burnt Spur 2012 Sauvignon Blanc and very nice Martinborough Vineyard 2010 Pinot Noir). The vineyards also have a very organic way of keeping the grass trimmed and the leaves off the vines:

We also arrived in time for the 2013 Jazz festival – Niiiiice!

The journey down highway 2 to Wellington was interesting as the road was very winding and disappeared into the clouds, up and over the hills and back down the other side. I’m glad we didn't meet any logging trucks on the hairpin bends! It reminded us of many a ski bus trip in the alps.

Wellington can be described as ‘small and bijou’. We walked around the centre a couple of times and along the promenade, checked out the Sunday markets then went and had lunch :-)

Old St Pauls is New Zealand’s ‘finest wooden gothic revival church, constructed entirely from native timbers’. It was beautiful and photos don’t do it justice:

We walked up Mt Victoria and this was the view of the centre:

Then spent an afternoon in Te Papa, the national museum (seen mid left in the photo above)

We visited WETA Cave, the company (co-founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor to name a few) whose artists and craftsmen helped bring many films to life including, The Lord of the Rings, Avatar, District 9, King Kong, The Hobbit, and many more:

The guided tour took us into the workshop and behind the scenes, showing us the props and models and how everything is made – fantastic! Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed.

That’s it for the North Island for now. Tomorrow we cruise across Cook Strait and start our tour of the South Island.

NB: I had hoped to publish this on Tuesday 3rd September but didn't have a good connection!