Napier & Hawkes Bay, New Zealand

Mission Estate Winery 
- Hawkes Bay, New Zealand

Hawkes Bay Vineyard - New Zealand

Art Deco National Tobacco Company Building
- Napier, New Zealand

Downtown Park - Napier, New Zealand

Napier & Hawkes Bay, New Zealand (12/3-4/2009) - Napier is one of prettiest towns in New Zealand having been rebuilt in one of the world’s largest collections of elegant Art Deco and Spanish mission architecture that was popular at that time.

Arriving late Thursday afternoon was interesting - downtown Napier was deserted. It was like one of those movies where a disease or chemical disaster hits a town and nothing but the buildings are left. A lesson learned is that is takes more than unique architecture to make a town have vitality.

Located on the west side of New Zealand’s North Island, Napier does have some interesting things like the Marine Parade along the waterfront with cafes, museums, and Marineland - New Zealand’s national aquarium. 

Even more fun for us was another wine tasting day driving around the beautiful scenic Hawkes Bay region, the second largest wine-growing region in New Zealand, visiting some of the better of 70 wineries such as Vidal, Te Mata Estates (the oldest winery in New Zealand), Craggy Range, Mission Estate, and Black Barn - great for lunch (see photos).

Waimarama Beach, New Zealand

We also visited Waimarama Beach, one of the many beaches this area is famous for. We had our first L&P - a very popular fizzy lemon drink that they call World famous in New Zealand.

Some history... In 1931 a massage 7.8 earthquake demolished the whole town of Napier. It was rebuild in the Art Deco style you find there today.

Please see our 8 other blog posts on wonderful New Zealand:

New Zealand Auckland

New Zealand Christchurch

New Zealand Milford Sound

New Zealand Nelson Abel Tasman National Park Marlborough Wine Region

New Zealand Queenstown

New Zealand Rotorua

New Zealand Wellington (Capital)

New Zealand West Coast South Island Franz Josef Glacier Wanaka

 
Please enjoy 250+ wonderful places around the world, with award-winning photos, from our BLOG ARCHIVE on the right ---->

Travel for half the cost for all levels of travel from budget to luxury and 100's of other unique travel tips! From a travel TV host (Plan Your Escape®), travel columnist for the Huffington Post, and experienced traveler (106 countries), our popular 5-star customer rated groundbreaking and comprehensive how-to world travel book Plan Your Escape, Secrets of Traveling the World for Less Than the Cost of Living at Home reveals secrets how you can travel and see more for half the cost for all trips from weekend getaways to longer vacations and trips, experience more adventure and romance, safely realize your travel dreams with comprehensive planning tools and checklists, travel the world for less than $100/day for a couple, and much more!
Buy this popular book on Amazon.com (also available as Ebook for $9.99), CLICK HERE