Art Deco Napier

Today, we were supposed to be spending the day at Splash Planet, however when we woke up, it was 15 degrees, and drizzly. So instead we decided to spend some time in Napier. Lovely to have a wander around there, and have a proper look, which I haven't done in many years, in fact not since 1996 when I had a student placement at Hawkes Bay Hospital. Lots has changed, and lots is the same. Napier was floored by an earthquake in 1931, and due to this, phoenixed out of the ruins as New Zealand's Art Deco capital. There's a lot of cool initiatives going on to make it also an outdoor playground, they've already got a scooter park, which is holding the national scooter champs tomorrow. The playground on Marine Parade is fantastic.

As the weather improved in the afternoon, we took ourselves out to Ocean Beach, which is a bare knuckled car drive along a road that is falling away, and partly gravel. Worth the trip! Amazing long sandy surf beach. We arrived to see 2 people galloping the length of the beach on horse back (although watching 2 people galloping the length of the beach under own steam would have been worth watching too). It was dramatic.

We made sure we were back in Hastings in time to have our dessert before our dinner that night. Rush Munro treated us with ice cream sundaes, the Husband and I had the gold medal Blackcurrant ice cream topped with chocolate sauce, the Eldest had Passionfruit ice cream topped with passionfruit sauce, and the Youngest had Strawberries and Cream ice cream topped with strawberry sauce. Yum-tastic.