I chose where to go after Wellington on the basis of the 10 day weather forecasts. Napier is further north, on the east coast in Hawke's Bay and it is known for its art deco architecture. In 1931 a massive earthquake and subsequent fires destroyed most of the city so they rebuilt it in the predominant architectural style of the time, art deco. To be honest, the art deco wasn't enough of a draw on its own for me, but the forecast looked good. I was getting frustrated by the wind and rain in Wellington as it prevented me doing the outdoor activities I wanted to.

On my first morning here it was a bit drizzly so I went to the aquarium. I discovered that there used to be an attraction on the seafront called Marineland which featured dolphins, seals and the like, but it closed down about 8 years ago. They're converting the site into a skate park which opens this weekend. Some of the remaining animals were transferred to the aquarium further down the seafront.

The highlights of the aquarium for me were not actually fish. They have kiwis, which is not unusual here, as they are often kept in captivity indoors in aquarium buildings with night and day reversed. I enjoyed seeing a kiwi snuffling around just the other side of the glass from me. The other highlight was the penguins. They have at least 20 Little Penguins (also known as blue or fairy penguins) which are native to New Zealand and south Australia. They're the same ones I saw in Victor Harbour last month. The penguins have all been rescued from the wild either with injuries that prevent them being released or abandoned chicks. Some of them are missing flippers or vision impaired.

The penguin pool allows people to get right up to the edge and watch the penguins swimming. The water is pumped out with a strong current which the penguins use like a treadmill, swimming against it. I also watched them being fed which was cute, seeing the keepers feeding them individual fish. People say it's unfair to keep animals in captivity but these birds would all have died long ago in the wild and I think learning about wildlife while it's in captivity is important so people understand the need to conserve it in its natural habitat.

Obviously there were fish at the aquarium. They had piranhas, eels, tropical fish, koi carp, shoreline creatures and the obligatory big tank with sharks in and a tunnel through it. There was a moving walkway through it but it wasn't operating. They had another big tank with a sea turtle in it which was interesting to see. There were quite a lot of reptiles and amphibians including fire newts and Chinese water dragons. It was a good way to spend a rainy few hours.

I spent the afternoon exploring the city centre. Because of the heritage, many buildings had the name of the original occupying business on them but the shop front at ground level showed a different business.

On Thursday morning I picked up a rental car and drove to Te Mata peak. There was a road right to the top but it seemed like cheating and I'd given one of my hostel roommates a lift up there and he was keen to do a circular route to the summit and back. It was a good walk, passing through several different types of woodland and then out onto grassy and rocky hills that reminded me of the South Downs. Some of the paths were pretty steep and it was a struggle to make it to the top. At the top the views were great but I had to have a lie down and wait for my heartbeat to get back to normal. It had got very hot as well which didn't help. There were hang gliding launch ramps up there, which looked terrifying. We walked back down on a very dusty track that wound down the hill through more woodland and eventually figured out the way back to the car park. My legs are still stiff and achy from the hills.

I went to a river estuary nature reserve out near the port which was recommended on Trip Advisor as being a flat easy walk with lots of birds to see, and it was. I saw a variety of wading birds and lots of tiny mud crabs. In the evening I drove up a big hill in the city with two of my roommates and we looked down at the port and watched the sun setting over the city and the sea. It was really beautiful.

On Friday I drove to a tiny village called Clifton which is at the end of the road where Cape Kidnappers starts. On Wednesday I'd discovered that the walk takes at least 5 hours return from the car park and can only be done while the tide is out so I decided to play it safe and booked to get a lift down the beach and back on a trailer pulled by a vintage tractor. It was a bumpy ride and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone with back problems but it was a good novel experience and I got to spend plenty of time at the end of the Cape, where there are several gannet colonies. It was an uphill walk to the big gannet colony which was challenging with my legs being stiff from the previous day's walk and from sitting on the edge of a trailer. It was worth it though. The gannets don't seem to care about human visitors at all. There was a small fence to keep people out of their nesting area but the nests came quite close to the fence. It didn't smell great and it was quite noisy but they are beautiful birds to watch. I saw a few sitting on an egg, some tiny grey spotty chicks and some really big white fluffy chicks. Adult gannets are mostly white but their heads are yellow.

Next stop Rotorua.