Napier- A Refreshing Walk

Real-time

We've had a busy time in Napier although if you asked 'doing what?', it would be hard to answer. We've both been busy catching up on lots of small jobs on our computers and the vehicles... ours and Mum & Dads'! It's a great feeling when you cross items off your 'to do' list, although it seems I have been adding jobs to the top as fast as they're dropping off the bottom because the list looks just as long as when we arrived.

Snow still on the Kawekas this past week

It's been typical sunny and warm Hawke's Bay weather this past week or so but the big storm hit us not long after we arrived in Napier, with snow, rain and power cuts. I had a chuckle though, it was bucketing down outside, the wind was atrocious, snow had closed the Taihape & Taupo roads (a rare event, especially the Napier-Taupo) and the power was off for the second time in a few hours. 

My sister Gae & brother-in-law David, were visiting from Whangarei and we were having a small family gathering later in the evening. I went inside (we're parked beside the house) to see how they were all going- to be greeted by a miserable lot sitting in the dark, wrapped up in extra clothing, with no heating, no coffee, no breakfast, no TV and no way to cook for the party. I returned to my diesel heated van, to drink my coffee and eat my bacon & eggs while listening to my favourite music. Just another day for us, don't know what the fuss was about! Luckily the power did come back on later in the morning.

It rained solid for a good few days and by the time it stopped some of us were suffering from a dose of cabin fever, so Gae, David(BIL) & I headed to Ahuriri for a walk to blow away the cobwebs. While we were waiting for a friend to join us, I wandered down to Perfume Point to take some photos of the murals painted on the side of the lighthouse.

'Marine Protected Areas' by Aaron Glasson

The 'Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans' street art festival was held back in March. Over 30 large murals have been painted on walls around Napier. Their aim is to highlight marine environmental issues relevant to the local community. It was my intention to photograph them all before we left Napier, and I have managed to do just that later in the week. But I'm only going to show a few here, the ones we passed on the walk. I'll do another blog with the others later on.

We headed off down the boardwalk past East Pier Hotel...

...along the front of The Boardwalk Restaurant where waves from the weekend storm has left sand, seaweed and driftwood across the path.

Some hardy paddle boarders were riding the waves a little further along Hardinge Road.

And we passed another mural- Endangered Maui's Dolphins- on a wall at Napier Port.

It was very cold with a bitter wind blowing as we turned onto Marine Parade but it was lovely to breathe in the fresh sea air. It was lucky Gae borrowed Mum's big thick jacket even though it nearly swallowed her up. While these Northlanders are well used to rain, they'd forgotten how cold it can get in the Bay. 

Well, it's not quite New Brighton Pier but Napier's new viewing platform looks pretty cool against a brooding sky and rough ocean.

It's probably just as well it doesn't reach any further than the high tide mark because I can imagine the problems it would have caused with people using it as a launching platform to swim from. The waters off Marine Parade are dangerous enough at the best of times, let alone when there's a storm a brewing.

And at least the view back over the beach and along Marine Parade is one we've never seen before. 

We make our way back to the road passing two old favourites along the way; the Tom Parker Fountain and Pania of the Reef.

We head towards Shakespeare Road to walk back over Bluff Hill. The 1909 old County Council building is now a luxury boutique hotel, this was one of just two significant buildings that survived the devastating 1931 earthquake.

I spot another mural tucked beside a nearby carpark- Plastic Pollution Affecting Sea Turtles

We stop beside a familiar building, the old Cabana Hotel at the bottom of Shakespeare Road. Gae, Jill and I all went to Napier Girls High School which is just up the hill. The Cabana Hotel had a very rough reputation in it's day and any girls walking into town at lunch time or after school had to walk the gauntlet past the public bar which was usually full of drunken dropouts and sailors from the boats in port.

We carried on up Shakespeare Road, a walk we would have done dozens of times during our teenage years, even though Gae & I caught a school bus from the farm to school in our early years, and then later, rode our motorbikes or drove our own cars. We were the lucky ones, you were only allowed your own transport if you lived out of town. But we often had a pass to walk into town for various appointments or shopping.

We passed the Naked Witch, which, according to Jill, in 'famous in Napier'. I wonder if it has anything to do with a certain notorious lady who lived her final years in Napier, loved purple and was a self-proclaimed witch.

We head down the other side of hill back towards Ahuriri, and I catch a quick glimpse of Napier Girls over the top of the old dairy, a shop I saw the inside of a few too many times.

We pass this unusual tiny little house tucked into the cliff at the bottom of Shakespeare Road. Its been there for a long while but none of us know it's history.  

The many houses of Scinde Island (Bluff Hill) and Ahuriri, most built before the 1931 'quake and when water surrounded the hill, and Ahuriri was a busy port.

Gae does her best impression of a 1930's flapper beside the historic Tram Shelter near Battery Road in Ahuriri.

In 1911, the council installed an electric tram system that linked Ahuriri to downtown Napier, the service ended after the earthquake but the well-preserved tram shelter still stands and murals in keeping with Napier's Art Deco theme have been painted on the walls of the building.

We carry on along Waghorne Street, an area steeped in history, where new apartments sit alongside tiny old fisherman's cottages and industrial warehouses. Ahuriri was one of earliest settled areas of Napier when the harbour at Iron Pot was the site of Hawke's Bays main port.

We say hello to Dulcie's owner as we pass, she's having a few battery problems, poor girl.

The things you see along the backstreets...

One of the old fishing cottages...

Another Sea Wall on the side of the Navigate Hotel & Apartments- Bryde Whales & Fishing Ships

And a final wall for now, in amongst the shops and cafes of Ahuriri village- NZ Endangered Marine Animals

We cut back up Barry Street to the waterfront and the cars, passing the restored facade of the Ellison & Duncan building with it's quirky window murals.

The original building was designed by Louis Hay as part of the reconstruction of Napier following the 1931 earthquake. Louis Hay also designed the nearby iconic National Tobacco Company building.

Back at the carpark we say goodbye to Jill and head home, happy with our walk and feeling very refreshed.

Snow at Flora

We should have known better. We’ve had some very heavy frosts down at sea level this past week & we’ve also listened to some dire weather forecasts for the mountain areas of the South Island. But it was a stunning day once the initial chill disappeared & we really did want to head back to the Kahurangi National Park again and walk the track to Mt Arthur Hut which we missed on our last visit.

The secondary slip that we’d squeezed through the last time had been cleared but another small one had come down in it’s place and the road was strewn with rocks and rubble which we crossed easily. A bit further on and we could see a smattering of snow on the peaks and it started appearing on the side of the road in the shade of the bush, nothing that would cause any trouble.

And then suddenly around a bend we came across a car stuck in the middle of the snow. Well I say snow but at this stage it was mainly solid ice on the tracks and slurry on the edges. Two young guys were kicking and scraping the tracks behind their tyres & were very soon able to back down, without sliding, onto the gravel and turn around further back down the road.

We pulled on past once they got free and David continued on up the road, me walking & slipping & sliding after him. I figured because I was a bit anxious, David didn’t need me beside him oohing & arrrgghhing. By now it was near impossible to turn around; the road very narrow, the sides thick with snow with a near vertical drop off on the right. The only comfort was that there were plenty of trees down there to break any fall.

As David disappeared around the next corner I thought he’d stop at the next gravel patch to wait for me but he pressed on. It was a steep & slippery walk to catch him up.

As I approached another bend I could hear voices ahead of me and around the corner was another car that had come to grief. It had slid off and hit the bank, thankfully on the right side of the road. A father and his two very young girls, who thought it was a great adventure. They’d walked to the top to build a snowman and were now gathering their gear together. One of the girls told me “Mum was going to be very mad when she found out. We stay with Dad at the weekends & now we are stuck!” Out of the mouths of babes.

We couldn’t help free the car but said we’d pick them up on the way down. The father had decided they’d walk back down the road until they found someone that could bring a tractor up and tow them free. It was about 7km and very steep to the bottom of the mountain but they must have found someone as we failed to see them when we returned.

The snow was getting deeper but the Ford Ranger was managing very well, David kept it just off the tyre tracks that were ahead of us. The compacted tracks had refrozen into ice while the snow on the edge provided a bit of grip. Very near the top we came across an abandoned scooter. Who in their right mind would have come this far on a scooter I ask you!

Finally the road levelled out a little and we knew we were approaching the carpark. And what a difference it looked from the other week, thick snow covering the whole car park. And just one other vehicle parked up.

Going by the tyre tracks there had obviously been a few vehicles up here or one going around and around the snow covered shrub in the centre, trying to flatten it a bit.

Even though it looks quite lovely in these photos, it was bitterly cold and the wind was blowing a gale across the mountain tops so we made the decision not to do the walk and head back down. We also knew that had we gone on the walk we’d have been all the time worried about the drive back down. The afternoon sun would have melted some of the snow and it may have refrozen making it a lot more slippery later in the afternoon.

Snow capped mountains replaced the rainbows we saw on our last visit.

So after a quick photo shoot & toilet stop (not to change undies either we headed back down the road. It was quite scary but David put the Ranger into low-low range & engaged the Downhill Control feature. He inched his way through keeping away from the iced up tracks in the centre and hugging the right as much as possible. He found the hardest part was keeping his foot off the brake and having total faith in allowing the vehicle to do it’s job. We slipped just the once and the anti skid brakes kicked in, giving the wheels a few quick release bursts to keep them rotating. There was a big sigh of relief when we finally eased our way out of the last of the snow.

And while we probably should have turned around (not that that was an option once we got into the snow proper) we now have a lot more faith in the Rangers capabilities. And perhaps we’ll invest in a set of snow chains before next winter.

We’ll also have to add the Mt Arthur track to the “when we return” list as we’ll be heading off to Golden Bay soon.