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FARFRUMWURKEN
It's Tuesday, November 29th just before 7:30 a.m. and we’re getting set to pull into Napier. This little town is located in Hawke’s Bay on the eastern coast of the North Island. The total population of the Napier-Hastings ("The Bay Cities) is about 130,000, which makes it the fifth-largest urban area in New Zealand, closely followed by Tauranga (132,000) and Dunedin (120,000). It’s the nexus of the largest wool centre in the Southern Hemisphere, and it has the primary export seaport for northeastern New Zealand – which is the largest producer of apples, pears and stone fruit in NZ. Napier is a city of vision, rebuilt in the striking, clean style of Art Deco after what was a devastating earthquake back in 1931. When the city started the rebuilding process they constructed it in the popular style of the time, Art Deco. It’s really considered the Art Deco capital of the world. All the rubble from the ’31 quake was repurposed along the eastern shores and turned into gardens and a recreational reserve. It’s also considered a gourmet center for both food and wines to which we will give it a try tomorrow.
Wellington was a nice stop, we selected a Hop-On/Hop-Off tour in a much smaller van as compared to the normal double-decker buses. It was a two-hour tour that provided us with a good overview of downtown Wellington and some of the more interesting tour locations. This area is prone to earthquakes, and was just effected by the recent seismic activities to the point where there was an area in the CBD and other structures (7-storey parking garage, apartment complexes, office towers) that were in the process of destruction. They seem to have a very casual attitude when it comes to this geographical certainty and deal with it as best as they can. I’m happy to say that all was quiet when we were in town.
Wellington has become a key area in movie production, from Tarzan to the Hobbit series, they’ve become a centre for the digital, green screen process, with hundreds of thousands of terabytes of digital development stored in their data warehouses. In fact, the movie production company approached the city about them installing ultra-fast 4G+ underground and the sweetener was that they would provide all residents of Wellington FREE access to the high-speed cable for the rest of eternity. Quite a deal.
It looks as though I’m heading ashore by myself today. Deborah has come down with something that she feels is a sinus infection. She couldn’t make it for dinner last night and has been relegated to the room. For the last 24-hours, both of us have donned masks just to be safe as we still have eight days left here down south. It seems that Renetta has made the turn after two weeks and is back to normal.
Well, I’m off with the rest of the group in Napier today (2,950 nautical miles traveled on this 2nd segment) with an expected 80 degrees F under very sunny skies. Next and final stop will be Tauranga then on to Auckland for de-embarkation.
Wellington was a nice stop, we selected a Hop-On/Hop-Off tour in a much smaller van as compared to the normal double-decker buses. It was a two-hour tour that provided us with a good overview of downtown Wellington and some of the more interesting tour locations. This area is prone to earthquakes, and was just effected by the recent seismic activities to the point where there was an area in the CBD and other structures (7-storey parking garage, apartment complexes, office towers) that were in the process of destruction. They seem to have a very casual attitude when it comes to this geographical certainty and deal with it as best as they can. I’m happy to say that all was quiet when we were in town.
Wellington has become a key area in movie production, from Tarzan to the Hobbit series, they’ve become a centre for the digital, green screen process, with hundreds of thousands of terabytes of digital development stored in their data warehouses. In fact, the movie production company approached the city about them installing ultra-fast 4G+ underground and the sweetener was that they would provide all residents of Wellington FREE access to the high-speed cable for the rest of eternity. Quite a deal.
It looks as though I’m heading ashore by myself today. Deborah has come down with something that she feels is a sinus infection. She couldn’t make it for dinner last night and has been relegated to the room. For the last 24-hours, both of us have donned masks just to be safe as we still have eight days left here down south. It seems that Renetta has made the turn after two weeks and is back to normal.
Well, I’m off with the rest of the group in Napier today (2,950 nautical miles traveled on this 2nd segment) with an expected 80 degrees F under very sunny skies. Next and final stop will be Tauranga then on to Auckland for de-embarkation.
- comments
Tom Sorry to hear Deb is under the weather. We hope it's not going to last long.
Hickman Renetta4 Well, I guess Jean is the only one who has been well so far. Info is interesting and good pictures! Thanks.
Sandra Wow! What a place! Wish I was there! So beautiful!