A new port for us today – Napier.  One of the few new ports on this trip.  Unfortunately, we are only were docked from 7a until 1:30p, so we have precious little time to waste if we want to see everything.  And, sadly, we weren’t even on time.  It was more like 7:45 by the time we got off the ship and got the free shuttle into town.  We had wanted to walk, it is really close, but you can’t walk inside the port, so shuttle it must be.

We hopped off the shuttle at the first stop, which was the I-site in the middle of town.  They were fortunately open, so we ran in and bought the self-guided Art Deco walking tour booklet for a whopping 10AUD.  Expensive, for sure, but we figured it would help us navigate around the town.  As it turns out, it was a waste of money.  Napier is so small, you just walk around the different streets and you can see all the Art Deco buildings on your own – no brochure necessary.  Well, at least we are supporting the economy! 

Napier was the scene of a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake on – are you ready for this? – February 3, 1931.  Yeah, it is the 92^nd anniversary of that earthquake today – and no one said a word.  It isn’t really something to celebrate I guess.  It destroyed the whole town.  What buildings weren’t reduced to rubble by the quake were gutted by a fire the next day.  It was catastrophic.

But the positive to that is the town rebuilt within 2 years, focusing on the Art Deco style of building to become one of the most modern towns in the country.  And thus, the plethora of Art Deco buildings everywhere.  It is lovely to walk around the pedestrianized streets and the wide porticoed walkways looking at all the different buildings.  And at 8am, there isn’t hardly anyone around, giving us great photo opportunities.

We walk all the way to the end of the main town area, to the war memorial, before circling back toward the waterfront.  The buildings and the street art are really something to behold!

It is still early, but we decide to head up to the Napier Prison, the oldest prison in all of New Zealand.  They aren’t open for another 30 minutes, so we detour to walk around the Waterfall park, which is lovely, but small -and unfortunately the waterfall has totally dried up because it has been a very dry summer so far.

Up at the prison, we end up waiting outside with another couple from the ship.  They have pre-booked a tour, while we just showed up. But nonetheless, it isn’t exactly crowded up here – it is just the 4 of us waiting for someone to show up and open up the doors. Which they do at 9am, right on schedule.  The prison was built in 1862 and finally closed in 1993.  It took on many different versions – housing convicts, mentally ill, immigrants, orphaned children, militia. It has a very storied history.

We all get audio guides and wander into the interior courtyard, then into the cells and the hallways leading to the suicide watch rooms.  There are totally interesting displays and stories about the inmates and different guards and how the convicts lived here.  It is really quite a fascinating tour.

We saw all the graffiti in the Remand cells, mostly drawn on the bottom of the bed bases, by the Mongrel mob and other factions in the prison.  One of the mob was so attached to the graffiti that he came back to prison just to get it. 

Once the prison was shut down, it fell into disrepair, until a family purchased it and turned it into a backpackers hostel.  That lasted for years until now the prison is used solely for tours and for things like “twisted dinners” and scare tours.  Good location for it!

Heading back into town, we took the ocean pathway along the black sand beach, which was quite beautiful.  We walked through the gardens and past the rotunda, then went to a great museum focused on Maori culture but also the 1931 earthquake.  Even here no one said anything about the anniversary!

While the museum was really interesting, the earthquake part was really, really crowded with rude people who kept walking up and standing in front of us as we tried to watch a film about the quake. We didn’t stay long after that as it was just uncomfortable, but honestly, we’d seen everything we wanted to see in the building.

Outside in the lovely fresh air, we walked through the park again to see the Pania of the Reef, a celebrated woman who married a Maori chief. 

Then back to the shuttle, where we saw the six sisters buildings and onto the cruise ship pier, where we were treated to an antique car show with all the car owners dressed up in 1930’s style garb.  Wonderful!  We wandered around the cars for a bit, then watched from the balcony as they all drove off as we got ready to sail. 

A short but very fun day. Back aboard, it is formal night. And weirdly so, the dining room was empty!!! Couldn’t believe it. Last formal night it was packed. This is just a weird sailing- we can’t figure these people out.  But made it nicer for us eating this evening.  We’re not complaining. 

At the show later, we learn that the entertainers for tonight didn’t make the ship, so we have the comedian again. Fine by us. He was a hoot. Even if we didn’t understand all his Australian references! We changed where we sit though. He wanders the audience and we were not going to risk getting in his cross hairs!  LOL.

Then it was back to the balcony for a beautiful sunset. All’s right with the world.