Day 31-32– Feb 21-22

Crystal Serenity arrived at Napier at 6:30 PM today. We were the first few in line to get off the ship. Napier was destroyed by a devastating 1931 earthquake. It was rebuilt with art deco landmarks. The Art Deco Festival was held this weekend. The moment we got off the shuttle bus, we were fascinated by the hundreds vintage cars lined up along the waterfront and by the people dressed in Art Deco attires. Some of the people were also enjoying picnics on the lawn next to their cars. An airshow was also happening. People over there just know how to have fun. The city is well maintained and designed. We had a great time over there. We walked back from downtown to the ship.

We stayed overnight at Napier. The next day, we joined a shore excursion to see a Gannet colony at Hawkes Bay over Cape Kidnappers. It was quite a long distance and a rough drive over rugged mountains. There were thousands of birds in the colony. The parent birds have golden heads while the baby birds have grey heads. Since the young ones can’t fly, they are fed by their parents. Some youths are the same size as their parents or even bigger. We took a lot of pictures.

After the tour, we went to the ship to have lunch and then went out to the town again. The town was filled with joy and festival air.