NZ cruising day 5: Napier

the view from the window which, whilst not the most attractive holiday view we've ever had, was certainly interesting ...

The port where we docked for our Napier shore visit is a working port. We spent a fair bit of time today watching the logistical machinations of moving goods around the wide world to which we are otherwise oblivious. Not your usual tourism but fascinating nonetheless.

There were so many options for tours in Napier we panicked and signed up for not one, but we were happy to make our own way to Napier for a walk around this attractive art deco city.
They are very proud of their Art Deco creds which resulted from the rebuilding required after a massive earthquake in the 1930s did this to the town 

They rebuilt in the architectural style of the time, and now are now leveraging it for tourism. The Telegraph office is touted as being a great example of this, to be honest it's not that big of a deal. The town is interesting, but more like Bondi without the beach than the art deco capital of the world (I suspect they gave themselves this title).

There's a cafe culture and a beach front walk

and the ouchiest, rockiest beach I've ever traversed in search of a no-people-in-it photo, those little rocks were bloody hot!

There's a pretty park

and I'm sure there's a lot more to Napier but this was all we had time to see on foot today. 

We came back to the boat and watched the port activity, logging is one of the major exports.

We enjoyed a fantastic view leaving the port, look at this David & Goliath effort on behalf of that little tug pushing our rear end into the right spot for us to line up our exit trajectory!

And the pilot exiting our boat. This little fella (below) pulled alongside and the pilot bungee jumped from that little pokey outy bit on our ship - MGM lined up his cap conveniently so I could direct you to the right bit of the ship.
   

Well at least that is the way I envisaged the pilot leaving the ship. He actually donned hard hat, life vest and a tether and walked from the ship to the Pilot boat, very WHSy but my way would have been way more spectacular and I bet if you offered that as a job perk they'd be fighting applicants off with a big stick.