Art Deco Heaven

One of the buildings on the tour

The one thing that took me by surprise this Easter weekend was how much I was going to love the Art Deco feel of Napier.  It all started on a lazy Sunday morning were we had a bit of a lie-in before venturing into town in search for food.  As we slowly walked around and inspected the cafes, it was becoming very obvious that our big plans from the night before of doing as much as humanly possible just wasn’t going to happen.  Instead we took our time and enjoyed brunch before slowly strolling through town until we came across the Art Deco Trust.

It was here that we were introduced to a volunteer tour guide who knew everything imaginable about

Peeking through a mailbox

the town.  She took us up and down streets and told stories about love and tragedy that took place in Napier.  Everything from how her cousin narrowly escaped being crushed by a piano and then sat on the pier with her mom to watch the landscape change before her eyes to a son having to make the decision to give his mom a fatal dose of morphine to keep her from burning alive in the fires that roared through the town after the earthquake.  We peaked through mailbox slots and looked through windows to see the full extent of the beauty of the architecture.   

This was my first taste of Napier but it definitely will not be the last.  This tour was just a peek into how fabulous Napier can be over Art Deco weekend.  It was then and there that the three of us decided that that’s one event next February that we won’t be missing.

Hello Wine Country

Us on the tour

If you’re going into wine country than the only way to start off the weekend is by visiting wineries.  Courtesy of a winemaker flatmate – we were given the insider scoop on what would be the best tour to book in the region.  The tour started off with silly questions such as what kind of wine do you like…hmm, is ALL somehow the wrong answer?  Well I hope not as that’s what the 5 of us chimed in with.  We like red…we like white…we like New Zealand wine and so on.  Turns out we were a van full of girls that were not picky about the wine we drink – BIG SURPRISE!

All afternoon, we drove from winery to winery and sampled the best the region had to offer.  At each winery we started out with whites and finished with reds.  In between all the drinking we stopped for a delicious lunch at Elephant Hill.  I followed that up with chocolate snacks after tasting #3 (what’s a girl to do…they were looking at me from the counter screaming “mmm…chocolate!”) and then finished off the day with a little wine and cheese while basking in the autumn sunlight.  It was a great first day in Napier.  I was surrounded by good company, nice food, and great wine – what more could I ask for.