We are on the North Island of New Zealand for a couple of weeks, mainly to meet up with Jenny and David, who have flown over from England to visit Josh and Silvina in Christchurch. Somehow we got upgraded to business from Sydney to Auckland on the way over, although it was not too exciting on such a short trip. If only they would do that when we are on our way to Europe! We arrived just after midnight, so spent what was left of the first night near the airport. Next morning we drove to Napier for a few days.
First stop was Paraparaumu, the first of many pebble beaches we saw, where we watched the kite surfers.
Lunch was at Palmerston North. This is a statue of the Ghost of the Hui, a now extinct bird.
Mauri pouwhenua carved poles in front of the Civic Administration Building.
The drive through the Manawatu Gorge was pretty.
Next stop was the heritage village of Norsewood, the home of the trolls. Many hard working Scandinavians settled in this area from 1873.
Napier is renown as New Zealand's Art Decor capital because when an earthquake savaged the city in 1931, it was rebuilt in Art Decor style archecture.
The water front.
A typical Art Decor building in the town.
There are quite a lot of interesting art works around town. Love this 1930's woman and her dog, called A Wave in Time.
Massive flower pot!
Street seats.
Another Art Decor building.
Even the street signs are Art Decor style.
A mural.
Another!
Waiting for the bus.
No comments:
Post a Comment