Napier, New Zealand

Monday, 4 February 2008

Napier was levelled by an earthquake in 1931 and alot of the town's sights relate to this event and the massive rebuilding that followed. At the time, Art Deco architecture was popular and represented the kind of new beginning Napier wanted. As a result, it is one of the world's best preserved Art Deco townscapes. We did a walking tour and the streets reminded us (sadly lacking superior cultural reference points) of Scarface's Miami Beach.

There is not alot else to report. Apart, that is, from the escalating tensions between us and New Zealand birdlife. Every time we park on the roadside to have a meal, we are quickly surrounded by dozens of edgy looking birds, waiting to pounce. Irrespective of size, they have no fear and it takes an amount of vigorous arm-waving and roars of "get out of it" before they retreat to a distance where you can have a bite of a sandwich in peace. The oversized alpha seagulls are particularly sinister looking when, in tourist intimidation mode, they hunch up their shoulders and screech. Until the relatively recent arrival of humans in New Zealand, the country was almost solely populated by birds and they had few natural predators. Perhaps they still don't want us here.

If you want to see photos click here.