From Gisborne we drove South down the coast along Hawke Bay to Napier.Napier suffered from a disastrous Earthquake in 1931 that flattened the town.As the town was rebuilt in the early thirties, the buildings are predominantly Art Deco.The guide books say that the Architects went to town with the Art Deco style. I was a little disappointed, there were obviously a lot of Art Deco buildings but quantity doesn't give quality, with the exception of the National Tobacco building our Art Deco architecture beats it hands down.

We did the night time walking tour expecting the buildings to be lit with the neon lights that Art Deco is famous for, I was a little disappointed.Still the town had embraced the Art Deco madness and kept the theme with the street furniture etc. so 8/10 for effort.

I took a cracking picture of two businesses that face each other with quite comical consequence.The locals didn't quite get why I was laughing so much as I took the picture, I hope you get it!

On the sea front there is a lovely Art Deco amphitheatre that a young god botherer had commandeered.He was preaching his heart out in a rather mono tone voice.Street preachers are mildly amusing and pretty sad at the best of times, but this guy had taken over a whole amphitheatre and there was not one sole watching except for me and I was only taking photos for comical value! Enjoy!

I managed to drag Niall in to a vineyard enroute out of town, where we got to try a selection of local wines.I bought a bottle which I'll have to keep until Liz gets here.Niall doesn't like/appreciate wine so it would be wasted and to drink a bottle on my own would be gluttonous.