Napier, NZ… cont’d

It is much easier to feel like you’re on holiday when not rushing between one town and the next, so today felt like a holiday. We had a very restful night, since there was no nightlife to speak of at all last night when we went out. A quick lap around showed us empty streets and deserted venues, though later in the evening there were cheerful sounds to be heard, so it may be that we were simply early.

Our breakfast wasn’t hard to find, since The Criterion offers a free continental, which I took full advantage of with two bowls of cereal, one bowl of fruit, and three pieces of toast.

Our morning mission was to hike “the bluff”, which is the hill overlooking the city and port. The walk showed us numerous views into town, and some pretty cool homes, many of which were situated, or had a garage situated, precariously by the edge of the gorge which the bluff mounts to its peak. Once at the top we had a view that was nice enough, though nothing to compare with some of the expansive vistas we had experienced in the north.

I did enjoy the view into the port, where a ship was being loaded, and a small cruise ship was docked. We descended by was of a path we had passed unseen on the way up, which passed through the gorge itself instead of the street.

Back in town we went to a cafe across from Cafe Rosso, where we had lunch yesterday, and had some coffee and some lunch. Our lunch was a club sandwich. Those that know me know that I like sandwiches. Club sandwiches are a particular favorite, but so many restaurants mess them up with their “creative” influences like ciabatta bread or whole chicken breast. People who make a club sandwich like that need to go to the sandwich making school attended by Cappadonna. It was the best club sandwich. That’s all I’ll say. I wish we had taken a picture.

Instead, there’s a picture of me, looking a little surly, I see (obviously before eating the sandwich), sitting outside the cafe at which this legendary article can be ordered. On the topic of food, Christina had mentioned that we went to Cafe Rosso yesterday, but didn’t remark that the lunch we had there was incredible. We’ve had a few really great food experiences in a row, and that definitely makes travelling more fun. We sat at this cafe for a couple of hours, watching the cruise ship people trying to make the most of their brief stay, writing in our journals, enjoying some coffee and (I’ll admit, unimpressive) cheesecake.

Approaching the cafe, prior to our meal, we had the chance to hear the Hawke’s Bay Ukelele Underground, who were playing on the street. A group of about 8 1/2 people (including one little boy on shakers), they were playing outside on the street in an appeal effort to raise funds for earthquake relief efforts to benefit Christchurch. Christina took a video, for the amusement of a certain, ukelele-affiliated musician. During our time at the cafe we also had the chance to listen to some other buskers on guitar, and were somewhat forced to listen to the aptly named Drones & Sticks bagpipe “band” (“group?”, “pack?”, “mob?”, what DO they call themselves?) who walked right past our table a couple of times.

After lunch we continued our walking tour of town, exploring some regions that we had not seen yesterday, due to the rain that had discouraged us. Along one of the streets was an antique shop that we stepped into, nearly with disaterous results of a decidedly Biblical proportion. Many of the items in the shop were very cool. I was tempted to buy many an antique pipe, cigarette case, shaving kit; to say nothing of the huge number of awesome books, including a super cool looking leather-bound collection of fictional works by some guy I’d never heard of, and… a Bible.

Now, I’ve already got one of those, but THIS one looked like it had been nicked from the altar of a very serious cathedral after maybe five hundred years of service. It was about 3 inches thick, with huge brass clasps on the opening end attached to broad brass rims around the front and back covers. I opened it up about a hundred pages in and it was still the preamble material, something about The History Of Nations. I went right to the middle and saw that it had really good print, many nice illustrations, maps, everything. And heavy! If you’re needing to smite somebody, let me tell you, THIS is the one you’re going to want to use. We talked ourselves out of it though, so we are not the proud new owners of a really huge Bible. We had to get out of there before accidentally accumulating anything.

The only other shop we stopped into was the Art Deco Shop, where they have basically merchandised the heck out of the town. They did have some very nice postcards though, so we took the liberty of sending one home. I haven’t yet seen the one that really captures New Zealand for me, so haven’t done much postcarding yet. I have this feeling that there’s the perfect one out there somewhere, waiting…

We concluded our walk by visiting the beach again, and this time checking out the Sunken Gardens, which makes up a very sceanic area in a somewhat recessed portion of the promenade. Both of us were nearly falling asleep at that point, so we returned to our room for a nap. Shortly we will venture out for dinner, braving the rain that has resumed while we slept, after so kindly an absence while we explored during the day. Looking out on the street it seems pretty quiet, but with last night as our guide, I’m guessing that around ten o’clock or so thing will start to come alive.