Monday, January 22, 2007

Sunny Napier

Five hours from Wellington is the world's greatest collection of Art Deco architecture outside of Miami. The place is called Napier, and Karla and I just returned from a couple of days by the sea and among the grape vines at some of New Zealand's oldest vinyards.

Yesterday, we ate lovely fish, saw the new James Bond movie, and sampled some Hawke's Bay wine. Today we went to the beach, saw a shearing show and drove back home.

Cool thing: Eric Clapton is playing at Mission vinyard (the aforementioned New Zealand's oldest vinyard) next weekend. Napier is fully booked in preparation for 25 000 new people to land on a town with a regular population of 50 000.

Another cool thing: we finally had lots of sunshine and it finally felt like real summer. The temp was about 26 degrees the whole time, and Karla and I actually got sweaty just by standing around. Of course, when we got back to Wellington--surprise, surprise--clouds and rain. Things should improve though. It's staying in the twenties celsius pretty regularly now.

Next weekend should be fun: it's our 'one year New Zealand anniversary' on Jan 27th, and also Wellington Cup race day. So we plan to get all fancied up and place some bets on some fillies.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am most envious. Where else would one consider a "Shearing Show" one of the highlights of their weekend

Faye said...

And here in Florida, Winnipeg's GUESS WHO are playing at Cypress Gardens. Only here could Loretta Lynn's concert the next night, be sold out already, and yet, I can buy front row tickets right now for the Guess Who. Evidently nobody has heard American Woman, Laughing or These Eyes.
Best regards from your aunt Faye.