Auckland to Christchurch Road Trip Day 2

Napier to Kaitoke National Park

We woke up around 8 and lazed around for another hour or so before we packed up and checked out. We also had some breakfast before we set out to explore Napier in the daylight.

The sun was shining and it was a beautiful autumnal day. We went back to some of the iconic art deco buildings like the Art Deco Center (where I declined to play dress up despite Allan insisting), and we took pictures of the Masonic Hotel before going in to have a coffee. The restaurant inside was gorgeous with comfortable seating, dark wood walls, and a couple of greenish blue and pink orange color pallettes throughout the different rooms.

Once we finished our coffees, we went back across the street to the MTG Hawkes Bay. Inside was a museum spread across three levels. On the ground level was an exhibit about Maori culture. It was beautifully laid out with nice accents from paua shell colors on signs. There was a lot of great information in there about notable Maoris including the first female Maori MP. The exhibit also included some traditional stories all of which involved the ocean.

After the museum we walked along Marine Parade on the hunt for Seawalls murals (go to seawalls.org for all the murals around the world based on country and city). There weren't any on Marine Parade, so we started walking down the side streets back towards the center of town. That was when we started to see them in random walls of businesses and parking lots. They were all ocean themed. Some also had themes around pollution in the ocean. Each one was tagged with the artist's name and they all had unique styles. Some murals we saw weren't a part of the Seawalls, but were still cool, like the Alice in Wonderland one that seemed to spill off the wall and into the sidewalk.

We kept walking back to the car. We decided instead of staying in a free campsite in a bit so great location, that we would pay about £8 to stay in Kaitoke National Park, the filming location for Rivendell. Not only is it somewhere I'd like to see, but it's a secure campsite and much closer to Wellington for our drive tomorrow (less driving and more time in New Zealand's capital city). On our way, before we left Napier, we stopped at the National Tobacco Building which is a stunning art deco building.

The drive to Kaitoke National Park was on a state highway most of the way, occasionally cutting through small towns. There were also a lot of vineyards along the way, as well as one brewery, God's Own Brewery. We couldn't resist and pulled off. It was a cool place with picnic tables and a place for a large fire pit in the evenings. We had a hazy pale ale and a mango jalapeno ale. They were both nice and the mango and jalapeno was subtle and easy to drink. With all the little towns we were able to stop for food and the bathroom without having to divert from our route which was handy because we were cutting it close to get to the park before the gate closed at 18:00. The last 20 km or so of the drive were winding through the mountains with lush green trees and palm trees all around us and sheer cliff drops to the right. The sun went down while we were driving here and it was beautiful.

We made it to Kaitoke at 17:44, just in time. It has a lot of campsites, but with school vacation ending today, the place was dead and out of the 16 varying sized campsites, we not only had our pick of sites, but they were all empty so we had area 8 all to ourselves right next to a small river. We parked up and luckily had internet so we were able to do some things on the computer to organize our trip.Read more