We've planned an easy day today -- maybe. So we're up later than usual and possibly to the sound of a brief shower of rain but by the time we emerge and have had jam on toast (no butter) it very sunny with a cooling breeze off the sea. You can imagine that we'd made no effort to see the first light of day from the most easterly city.
The road south to Napier suggests sourer weather but stays quite pleasant. Warm and sunny at Lake Tutira and then torrential rain and hail through Devil's Elbow a couple of kilometres down the road. Funny weather in New Zealand.
We drove through the back of Napier (and the suburbs having missed a vital road sign) and onto Hastings for lunch. A very nice lunch too in amongst the Art Deco buildings (or style for modern replacements) which dominate the town centre. The centre is, for once, more than just a single (usually very long) street and has the railway running through it which must cause endless queues should a train actually use it. A nearby Internet cafe quoted NZ$ 3 per half hour.
We drove to the nearby Te Matu Peak, a local highspot. In the meanwhile the weather had closed in so we had a bonus half hour sat in the car listening to the only FM channel on the radio. I thought the reception might be bad in the valleys, but on the hilltops? The wait was worth it, fine views over the Hawke's Bay area, distant mountains, nearby vineyards hills and sea.
Back down the road to Napier, the "Art Deco City." It turns out that most of Napier and a good proportion of Hastings were levelled by an earthquake in February 1931. In the next two years the two were rebuilt in the prevailing fashion, Art Deco [and Spanish Mission and Stripped something], hence Napier having the largest concentration of such buildings in the world. Both are refreshing as they feel like European towns (with shops and restaurants!) rather than the usual one street affairs.
Tonight we're at Archie's Bunker, our first foray off the YHA track (the YHA was full). First thing [given to us] were 2 for 1 drink vouchers at the local Tapas bar, that'll do nicely. We had a look at the local sightseeing place (Bluff Hill, that's it) and then wandered round the town centre before taking advantage of the free beer tokens. Hardly free, of course, more like fractionally less expensive. We read a little more about the raging forest fires around Sydney which are merely ominous for us (we fly there in a month) rather than potentially ruinous if not fatal for the locals.
More pressing for us is that the South Island is the best part of ten degrees cooler than here. Time to buy a woolly jumper...
Archie's Bunker, Napier S39.48868
E176.91882 Elev. 51m. 
A couple of local Internet cafes are quoting NZ$ 6-8 per hour. They might get some business if they charged a sensible rate.
Copyright 2002 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.