Napier, North Island, New Zealand

This town on the east coast of the North Island fancies itself a beach town and is quaint, clean and welcoming. Only problems, the ocean currents are so strong that ‘don’t swim warnings’ dot the beaches and the city was the site of a deadly, devastating 7.8 earthquake in 1931 that killed 258 people and leveled the town. The upside was that they restored the town in art deco style and its become a tourist magnet since with interesting architecture, black sand beaches and beautiful parks with palm trees. We watched a video in the town museum of testimonials of earthquake survivors along with a lot of buildings in rubble. We were told (tongue in cheek) by our New Zealand shipmates not to miss the Hokey Pokey ice cream so we headed to “Lick This” for a lick. We decided instead to go with two other flavors!Read more