Fri 5 Feb - From Art Deco to Lakeside Resort

We found Napier to be a very charming and interesting town. Apart from the art deco buildings in the centre, the style had rubbed off on many of the shops and houses in the suburbs. The shopping centre was a buzz of activity and as in all NZ towns the coffee bar culture rampant. We spent a couple of hours having a good look round visiting the cathedral that had been devastated by the earthquake in 1931. They celebrated the anniversary of the ‘quake two days before our arrival – fortunately Christine’s presence so close to this historic date did not lead to a re-occurrence.
After a drive to the oldest vineyard in the area just outside of town we decided that we were just not dressed for lunch and continued on our way towards Lake Taupo stopping at a roadside café instead. The road to the lake wound upward through a tree covered landscape and out onto a fairly barren plateau. The roads, after the twisting upward climb became long and straight to the horizon.
Our ‘Top 10’ site at Taupo was one of the best, the cherry on the cake being an outdoor pool that catered for Christine’s love of warm water. It was geothermally heated to a temperature of 38 degrees C!