art deco, birds, and SUNSHINE!

We only have one day in Napier, so we made the most of it!  after (as always) a lovely breakfast overlooking the pacific ocean....

(note the blue sky - YEH!!!!), we went for an architectural tour of the town of Napier.  Napier was completely destroyed in a 7.8 earthquake in 1931 (note the theme here:  this is a VERY unstable part of the world.....).  One unexpected positive aspect of the earthquake was that the ground rose by about 8 feet, giving the city a lot more buildable land - it used to be an island surrounded by swamps - and suddenly, the swamps were gone, and the town was connected to the land.  The town decided to rebuild as fast a possible and, this being the 30's, went with the fashion of the times:  in 2 years, an entire new city was built, mostly in art deco style, with some Spanish Mission interspersed here and there.  The architectural importance of the town was not realized until the 80's, so some buildings were lost in between, but the town remains a very unique place:  an entire town built in a style that only reigned for a few years,  It is now considered the "art deco capital" of the word.

I am not in general a great fan of the art deco style, but in this case it really works, and makes the town very special.
On our way to Cape Kidnapper (so named because one of Captain cook's translator was kidnapped by Mauri's in this area), we stopped at one of the numerous wineries that dot the region- Elephant hill.

We tasted and bought some wine, and admired a country-side very reminiscent of northern California.  (the rain and wind of the last few days have done something to my hair.... even my curls have curls....).

We then took the "gannet safari" tour, not quite knowing what it was about - we are very happy we did!  this ended up being a magnificent ride through a private bird reserve, leading to these fabulous cliffs:

... on which thousands of gannet gulls nest.  But, even without the nesting grounds, this would have been a great trip.  The reserve is trying to re-establish the original bird population of NZ, which has been disseminated by predators brought when Maoris and white people arrived.  Cats (regular house cats that turned feral) and Australian possum have been particularly deadly to a bird ecosystem that evolved without any mammal predators.  For instance, the emblematic kiwi is very well protected against eagles:  it only moves at night (when eagles don't fly), and is is brown and hard to see.  however, it does not fly and does not move fast, and has no way to run away from hungry cats. Also, it nests on the ground, where possums can easily eat the eggs.  Australian possum are these adorable creatures:

 that were imported to start a fur trade but, having no natural predators, have turned into a real problem in NZ, where there are now 70 millions of them.  So the reserve has built a complex system of fences, as well as traps, to get rid of possums, cats, rabbits, etc..  and has re-introduced a lot of the almost extinguished birds, including kiwis.  It is a magnificent countryside - full of - it goes without saying-  sheep and cows.... (which are also imported, but not destructive, so that's OK).
Once we got to the very tip of cape Kidnappers, we got up close and personal with the huge gannet colony:  this one has about 3500 nesting birds.  The chicks are just about to take their first flight- quite a first flight it is:  they jump off the cliff and have to fly - without stopping once- to Australia (check it on a map -- it's impressive!)- because they are too fat to take off -so they have to fly long enough to loose their "baby fat" before they land, or they wont take off again...
Here you see once of the adult, coming back from fishing, feeding one of the chick - which is by now bigger than it is:

I wish my i-phone could capture the smell too - because the smell of that many birds, sitting on top of a rock for several month is quite amazing too......
We came back to town, got some take out chinese, had a few drinks on the veranda overlooking the ocean, and now it's not quite 9pm, and I'm ready for bed.  Vacations are exhausting....
Tomorrow - we fly to the south island!