Had a lovely day in Napier today, mostly walking my little feet off!! Went up to Bluff Hill lookout in the morning after a really nice breakfast. Bit of a trek up a few hills, and I got a bit lost (signposts in NZ seem to be a bit strange, or perhaps it's just me?) so it did take me a little longer than it should have!
The weather wasn't quite as nice as it could have been - a bit cloudy but at least it had cooled down so I wasn't sweating half my body weight away again! The view from the lookout was still lovely, if a bit overcast.
A bit of an easier walk down the hills too!

Met the couple that are staying at the B&B as well, which was nice. An American gent and his wife, who's originally from Wales. They're quite a funny couple as well. He told a terrible blonde joke (our host - Ruth - is blonde) that none of us really laughed at! Both Ruth and I thought the ending was actually going to be different as well, which might have made the joke funnier!

After Bluff Hill, I had a bit of a walk around town, before joining the 2pm Art Deco walk around the city centre. It was a two hour walk, and well worth the $20 I paid as it was really informative. You could buy the pamphlet and do the walk yourself, but there are so many buildings and so many little stories, that I think it would have been a bit difficult. I took SO many pictures that I'm sure most of you don't want to see :D
They played a little film beforehand that told us a little of the history of Napier. On the 3rd of February 1931 Napier experienced it's first earthquake that measured about 7.8 on the scale. It basically flattened the town, and only 3 or 4 buildings were actually left intact. 261 people died, over 500 were injured. They call it New Zealand's biggest natural disaster! However, the town was completely rebuilt in Art Deco style (that was popular at the time) in about 2 years, which was no mean feat seeing as they were in the middle of the Depression.
Napier is like a little city that got trapped in the 1930s as so many of the buildings have been preserved. I think there's something like 170-odd Art Deco style buildings in the world, and Napier has 150 of them - so no wonder the town is unique! A handful of buildings still have original tiles and lead lighting in their windows from the 1930s, and most new buildings try and keep to the style. I don't think they actually enforce it, but they do encourage new builds to do so.
It's such an interesting place. You look up and see all these sunburst designs, pendants, and speed lines, and then you look at the shop fronts and see The Body Shop, Starbucks, TSB, and all sorts of other shops (I only mentioned the universal ones you see). It's quite a paradox :D

I'm just missing out on the special Art Deco weekend too, as that's this weekend coming. However, the festivities leading up to it have started today so there are lots of nice cars around and a few people in costume already. I've bought myself a feathered headdress - though I doubt I'll get the opportunity to wear it before I leave! Unless I just look a bit daft and wear it around town....maybe not! Oh well, I'll just have to have a flapper party when I get home :D

Met a funny english girl on the walk too, she seemed quite mad so I wasn't sure what to make of her at first. However, we bumped into each other a few hours after the walk, whilst just wandering along the beach. She said she didn't really have a plan whilst she was going around Australia and New Zealand for a couple of months, and was just kind of going with the flow. She was meant to have gone to Thailand with some bloke she was seeing, but he got back together with his ex, so she decided to come here instead. Fair enough I guess! She seemed to like talking about herself (like most travellers I think, or the ones I've met anyways) and told me she was a clown as her job, that she wanted to go and live in Spain for a month, and that she didn't think she was very interesting! I just told her as long as she's happy, then that's all that really matters! Good advice I think. I didn't want to be too blunt and point out that if she's fine with being an airhead, then so be it!! She did seem to be a bit space cadet, bless her. She didn't have any clue about what to do whilst she was in Napier, and hadn't even asked in her hostel or picked up any leaflets! Blimey.

Travellers are funny people really. You meet some people who just want to tell you about what they've done, as though they need to top your stories. I've been here, I've been there, oh yes I did that safari but I went for 10 days, blah blah blah. I quite like listening to people's stories because it is interesting, but it does get a bit tiring hearing people go on about themselves. I hope I don't get like that....so stop me going on about it when I get home, won't you? I mean, I'll have to bore you to death at first, but then you can just tell me to ferme la bouche!
Perhaps that's the downside of writing a blog too - you'll have read most of what I've done so I won't need to tell you in person!! You'll all be telling me that you've heard that story and then I can just slink off into a corner. Ha - I still have my skydiving DVD to impress / bore / terrify / make you fall asleep to!