It took me about an hour and took me past the port which is located outside the main part of Napier. It seems to be quite a busy port with lots of containers being loaded on and off ships and trains. A massive Holland America cruise ship was just docking when I was walking by. Crikey, those things are huge.
On the way into Ahuriri there is a spot where you can see where the old wooden docks used to be. There are old posts sitting out of the water and lots of rusting ship parts.
The tide was out at this point -- when I walked past later in the day you could hardly see the top of the posts as the tide was in. I thought that was really cool -- sort of haunting to see a bit of the nautical past peeking up.
Ahuriri has a lot of holiday homes -- many new ones but a lot of lovely old wooden ones as well...
There is a nice little harbour area filled with pleasure craft as well as fishing boats.
I went to the restaurant "Shed 2" (located in a row of old storage sheds now converted to restaurants and offices) for my lunch. Since I was sitting on a patio right on the harbour quay where the fishing boats were docked, I figured I should order the fresh catch of the day -- pan-fried John Dory served on a bed of fresh yellow beans and sweet peas with a butter/olive oil/saffron sauce. It also came with a huge baby crayfish on top of the John Dory which I promptly shuddered at and moved aside (sorry, shellfish lovers but I just can't do that!). The fish was lovely and the fresh sweet peas and bean were so good -- the beans slightly crunchy and the fresh peas just slightly blanched and served in the pods). I had a glass of Hawke's Bay region Esk Valley Sauvignon Blanc with it. For dessert I ordered the chocolate biscotti napoleon with chocolate ice cream and a small wedge of chocolate torte. It was terrible! Just kidding -- it was heavenly, really nice dark chocolate so not too sweet. It came with a big sprig of fresh mint so you could chew on a piece of mint between glorious chocolate bites. Kiwis seem to love their desserts ("coffee and a cake") and you cannot get bad coffee here anywhere. It is all pretty much espresso based and even the dingiest of places serves up a fabulous latte.
After lunch I went to look at the National Tobacco Company building which is one of the area's best art deco buildings. Ahuriri was wrecked by the 1931 earthquake as well and rebuilt. It hasn't kept its wealth of art deco like Napier city centre has but this building remains. It is now the offices for a furniture company and they let people into the foyer to look at the decoration and oak woodwork. The building has a lot of art nouveau influence in it as well as the Chicago style of architecture.
Then I went to lie on the beach for a couple of hours and read before walking the hour back into Napier. I went to the grocery store, Countdown, and picked up some Indian butter chicken and rice for my dinner tonight. I am just going to eat on my balcony tonight since I had that lovely leisurely lunch out. (Last night I just ended up picking up a lamb burger at a local takeout spot and bringing it back to my room.) I have a bottle of Dusky Sounds "12 degrees" sav from Marlborough region chilling in the fridge. "Coronation Street" is on tonight so I will watch that and just read and relax tonight. Have to be up early in the morning as I have a 7:15 a.m. shuttle pickup to take me out to meet the tour to the gannet colony -- you go via the beach and have to go while the tide is out.
It's amazing how tiring a lazy day in the sun can be. They are predicting another scorcher for tomorrow. I hear it's gotten a bit warmer in Toronto and Windsor as well!
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