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Trailor on Tour
Having spent the night at Butlin's, or at least the equivalent, and waking up to a coldish, overcast day, we decided to head into town and be organised. This entailed visiting a book exchange (we were running out of reading material), the internet, shopping for Nic's trek, sorting out the return of the van and deciding what and how to get to our next destination.
By lunchtime we were pretty organised and after a snack we headed off on our guided tour of the city of Napier, run by the Napier Art Deco Trust. Napier was named after a British General called Charles Napier in 1854 and it sits on Hawkes Bay. In 1931 it was devastated by a 7.9 Richter scale earthquake and resultant fire. An area of 40 km square was devastated, 250 people lost their lives and the ground rose 2 metres above sea level.
Between 1931 and 1933 the city was completely rebuilt and it was decided to use the Art Deco style, which was fashionable at the time. Art Deco has distinctive design features, including the zig-zag, lightening flash and rising sun and is very geometric and often painted in pastel colours.
The city was visited in the 1980s by Dr Neil Cross, President of the British Museums Association and he said " Napier represents the most complete and significant group of Art Deco buildings in the world and is comparable with Bath as an example of a planned townscape in a cohesive style. Napier is without doubt unique".
Our guide was incredibly enthusiastic and made the hours pass quickly and as luck would have it I was able to purchase 2 tickets for the cricket on the way round.
We decided to try and find a nicer place than Butlins and so headed out of town to a little place called Clive to spend the night. The campsite was small and the old guy who ran it was lovely, despite the fact that he asked me if I was alright at reversing the van - to which I replied "Oh, does this thing go backwards as well?!" - only joking, but sorely tempted. Dinner tonight - hot chicken from the supermarket and salad. There is now a national shortage of tuna and sweetcorn over here!! Sherry and Nicxx
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