Napier

When I pulled into the Eketahuna Motor Camp last Sunday I was greeted by a woman dressed in medieval  garb in fact several people were. It was a group of people who get together for a weekend twice a year, dress up and hold tournaments in stuff like archery on horse back. As it was late on Sunday, it was wrapping up and most had already left. I thought it was pretty cool and was sorry to have missed it. The campground turned out to be the best one of my travels. Not only was it really beautiful, it was cheap! Sunday night was shaping up to be a pretty cold night so rather than attempting to cope with the cold, I took a heated cabin for the whopping price of $15 - liked it so well I decided to stay 4 more nights. I've been feeling a need for a bit of a break from the constant cycle of moving and looking for somewhere to stay and it was a great chance to get everything clean and organized. The break did me good, I found I had a renewed enthusiasm driving through the plush green rolling hill farm land of the valley that brought me to Napier. It really does seem like you can't go anywhere in this country without some mountain range accompanying you for the ride.

Napier proclaims itself to be the "art deco capital", of what I'm not sure... my lonely planet guide book says it rivals Miami - never been to Miami, but okay. Napier's cool architecture stems from a devastating earthquake in 1931 that pretty well flattened the town. When they rebuilt, they did so with the predominate architecture of the time - art deco (think Gatsby). It gives the town an interesting feel but really, I was most impressed by the sunset they dished up last night, incredible.

Typical of art deco architecture:

Headed to Lake Taupo next but it's supposed to rain all next week so I'll be looking for a place to chill for a couple of days. Happy Mother's Day to all of us mothers!