Category Archives: Walking

Hiking Kaikoura

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Wednesday 4 March 2026 – The Hapuku Lodge is such a wonderful environment that we both were powerfully tempted to spend the day relaxing. It would have been splendid had the weather been crap; then we wouldn’t have needed any further bidding to remain slothful. However, looking out of our bedroom window,

we could see it wasn’t. So we went for a walk. Obviously.

Kaikoura is set on a peninsula which juts out from the east coast just far enough to make walking round it a decent  distance for the sort of hike we thought we could cope with.

 

It’s about 20km south of the lodge, so we retrieved our car and set off. The plan was to park at the point of the peninsula and walk round it until we got back to the car. However, lots of other people had the same idea and the small car park actually at the far end of the peninsula was full. It wasn’t a problem; we were still going to walk the same distance irrespective of where we started, so we found a spot a kilometre or so back and started from there instead. The peninsula is clearly a holiday hotspot, and I had a chuckle at one place’s marketing of an attraction for passing punters.

The recent snow that had settled on the mountains provided a great backdrop for photos of the very rocky seashore.

At the point of the peninsula, one can opt to walk along the rocks or take the path to the top of the cliffs; we opted to do the latter. It’s a well-presented path to start with, up a reasonably stiff climb of about 50m vertical.

The path then wends its way along the cliff top, past a small and unusually-sited lighthouse

which can only work to the north, since vegetation has grown up to obscure any light it shows in any other direction. The peninsula walk is a popular one; there were plenty of other walkers along it,

all presumably taking advantage of today being the first day of good weather for a while. As you might expect, the views along the way are excellent.

There’s a seal colony on the rocks to the south of the peninsula.

Those brown specks are actually fur seals,

which, as any fule kno, are not actually seals, but sealions. Using the dodgy end of the video capabilities of the phone, one can take slightly ropey video of them doing their sealiony things.

We could see the people who had decided to walk the lower path as they passed a wooden teepee on the shore.

I’m not quite sure why it’s special – there are any number of these things set up in the woods around Surrey, but there it is. Had we wanted to explore further, we could at that point have taken a path down to the shore, but

steps? I don’t think so. We’ve only just recovered from Tongariro.

As we went along, it rather looked as if there was going to be another stiff climb

which looked rather daunting. There’s someone working their way up it in this photo.

Yes, there is.

It frankly looked like bloody hard work, so having climbed a stile to get to it,

we were rather glad to note that one could go round as well as over.

We’d psyched ourselves up for the steep bit, honest, guv; but going round was a much more attractive prospect. The going was a little muddy in places – not seriously, but enough to give evidence of the wet weather that had preceded today’s lovely sunshine. The scenery continued to be wonderful, both looking towards the mountains

and southwards over the cliffs.

Eventually, the path reaches a settlement called South Bay

(I’d call it a town, but there’s no cafe, so civilisation hasn’t quite reached it yet). On the rocks outside South Bay there were several seabirds, which we saw were mainly shags. One, though, we thought was an egret,

and we were wrong. It was actually a spoonbill. Yes, it was.

and it was doing its spoonbilly things, again, captured at the far end of what’s possible with today’s phones.

At South Bay, the path turns back to cross the peninsula from south to north. We passed a house where the post box almost had a turf roof (lichens in actual fact of course)

and another which gave evidence of how windy it normally is round here.

The path led past some splendid agapanthus,

still in flower (most of the North Island agapanthus was over, so it was lovely to see this).

Leaving South Bay, the surroundings change quite significantly

as the path goes through a small pine forest.

Beside the path was today’s Mystery Object;

ramps which we couldn’t believe were a construct of nature. There were actually two of these double ramps and I wondered whether at some stage they were part of a mountain bike trail, creating some jumps for the deluded fools who go in for screaming down steep hills on narrow muddy paths.

We’ll never know.

At the top of the wood, one emerges into the outskirts of Kaikoura, taking “Tom’s Track” to get back through to the north coast of the peninsula.

This led us to a view over the Kaikoura Esplanade

and, blessedly, past a coffee shop, the Bee Box, where we had a small rest and a large flat white.

We were then on the road that runs along the north coast of the peninsula and simply had to walk along to where we’d started.  The walk led past another tribute to Tom

and a striking wooden sculpture

back to the car.

So, that was the Kaikoura pensinsula

and a very pleasant 10km hike it was, too. We headed back to the Lodge and took it easy for the rest of the afternoon before another superb dinner in the restaurant there. The food really was extremely fine.

The original plan had been to take part in a star-gazing session as night fell. However, clear as the day had been, clouds came in to foil that plan. Nonetheless, the moon looked good as it rose in the evening.

That signalled the end of our time in Kaikoura and regretfully we have to leave the lovely Hapuku Lodge tomorrow, to head further south. Stay tuned to see where we go next, eh?

 

 

 

 

 

Wending our way to Windy Wellington

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Wednesday 25 February 2026 – Our next stop would be Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, which is some four hours’ drive from Napier. Because they’d been such excellent hosts and made our stay at 415 Marine Parade so comfortable and convivial, it was almost a shame to be leaving; but we had to move on. Because we’d drunk quite a lot of theirs, we gave them a bottle of one of our favourite gins, Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin. Perhaps it might be enough to get Esther back on the gin….

It was a long drive, but a pleasant one.  Since the weather continued to be wonderful, the scenery was, of course, lovely, as is typical of the North Island, particularly as we approached Wellington.

Napier is in Hawkes bay, which is world famous for its wines. We passed several vineyards, which, unlike those seen in Europe, are level, rather than being on a slope. The plants also seem to have a much denser leafiness than is familiar in Europe. Some of the vines were in their nappies (Nappy Valley…?)

actually netting to keep the birds off the ripened grapes. Hawkes Bay is also, according to Pete the gannet driver, the fruit bowl of New Zealand. We passed lots of apple orchards, for example, and some kiwi, fig and olive plantations, too.

We also passed the first wind farm that we’d seen on our travels here. Our road wended its way between the turbines, which was a bit surreal.

We had a serendipitous encounter with a charming village not too far south of Napier, in our quest for a coffee stop. Jane noticed that there was a cafe in Norsewood, just off State Highway 2. I thought that the name might just be, well, just this name, you know? But I was wrong – the village is actually the site of a Norwegian settlement from 1872. We parked up in front of a very quirky building

 

and Jane went into the Information Centre

where a couple of ladies were on duty. She asked them what the story was about Norsewood and they both started to tell her, each interrupting and correcting the other, which was a comedy moment. Long story short, that period in New Zealand’s history saw a decline in people from Britain immigrating and so the government turned to the Scandinavian countries for a source of hardy people who were familiar with forest management – the area was called the “Seventy Mile Bush” but was actually dense forest. So it was that Norsewood came into being on the back of Norwegian immigrants. About 20 years ago a heritage museum was set up to celebrate the history of the place, and the village itself retains some Scandinavian quirks.

There’s also a replica of a Nordic Stave Church. Those of you who followed our Arctic trip will know of the delight with which we discovered these gorgeous churches as we travelled in the Norwegian midlands, and, indeed back in Oslo. This replica was tiny, and not actually constructed at all like a real stave church, but it looked the part from the outside.

It was part of a garden called “Johanna’s World” which is also dedicated to the memory of these early Norwegian settlers. After taking a coffee in the very pleasant cafe, we exited Norsewood (via Odin Street and Hengist Street, incidentally) and continued towards Wellington.

We had chosen our route to Wellington because it took us near the Hutt Valley. Living there is someone whom I last saw in 2006, when we both attended the same music summer school, played in the same orchestra and drank with the same disreputable members of the brass section. Through the tendrils of Facebook we had stayed in the sort of light contact that platform is actually extremely good for, and Andy had got in touch when he saw on FB that we’d be visiting New Zealand; so we arranged to meet. One is never quite certain how these things will turn out, but it was a pleasure to meet him again and find out what had led him from the UK to become a resident on the other side of the globe. He and his partner, Teressa, suggested that we take lunch in Petone, on the outskirts of Wellington, and so we had a great time over a meal in Speight’s and a subsequent drink in the Sprig and Fern. Like our encounter with Jess and Ian, this social aspect was an excellent leavening of the travelling routine.

And so we came to Wellington, where we’re staying at the (very posh) Bolton Hotel. Our accommodation has some kitchen facilities, including a sight to gladden my heart.

These things are important, you know.

The hotel had included some clear, unambiguous and easy-to-follow instructions as to how to use the washing machine, with pictures an’ everyfink, the result of which was nevertheless that we failed satisfactorily to complete our laundry before it was time for bed, so we left it, in the hope that it would have unlocked itself by morning, and got our heads down.

Thursday 26 – The machine had not unlocked itself by morning, but switching it off showed it who was boss and we were able to get our clean and really quite nearly dry laundry out, thank goodness.

Our only scheduled activity for the day wasn’t due until the evening (and you’ll have to wait until the next entry in these pages to find out more about it), so, the ironing done (because our seeking of enjoyment is relentless) we had the bulk of the day to our own devices. Yesterday’s fine weather had rather deserted us,

so we donned rain jackets and we went for a walk. Obviously.

We hadn’t got a huge amount of time to spare, so Jane had mapped out a route that took us round local sights – the government buildings, cathedrals, the waterfront. In general, the area we were in was what you might call typical capital city architecture.

The main parliament building is quite an impressive edifice

faced with a rather fine grey marble. Next to it is another government building, called “the Beehive” whose form is reminiscent of a skep, a traditional woven form of beehive. The building houses the offices of the Prime Minister and other government ministers.

 

Opposite the Beehive is a lawn with sculptures which look like a banana, a mushroom and a carrot

but which are, apparently, supposed to represent a bird’s head, an altar and a canoe. No, really. There is symbolism in this choice: the location is near where the original (Polynesian) canoes landed, where an altar of stones was built. Birds are seen as messengers or links between heaven and earth. So, moving swiftly on….

The next building we passed looked somewhat churchy

but is the government library. Just beyond it is a real church

the Roman Catholic Cathedral. Its interior is rather restrained for a Catholic church

and in a side chapel there was one of those Adorations going on

so we left quietly so as not to get told off again.

Not too far from the Catholic Cathedral is the Anglican one, the new St. Paul’s, which is a vast edifice with rather Art Deco overtones.

 

The interior is light

and has several impressive features:  the mosaic at the far end;

some lovely stained glass;

and a very nice bit of carving in the marble, a tribute to the building industry of New Zealand.

Also, up a side corridor, is the Lady Chapel, which is very handsome, with a magnificent scent of the wood it’s made from.

It was originally built in 1905 as St. Paul’s church in Paraparaumu (more of this town later in an entirely unrelated way), and moved here in 1990.

Having seen the new St. Paul’s we then walked around the corner to the old St. Pauls, which has definite overtones of stave church in its overall appearance.

A board outside makes quite the claim

which is

absolutely justified. It’s not huge, but it is magnificent. The stained glass here is lovely, too

Our next target was the waterfront, to get to which one passes the railway station.

The walk took us past what was very clearly the working part of the waterfront towards the more gentrified part, with some attractive buildings

and water-based sculptures.

Some kids were disporting themselves in kayaks, playing a game which appeared to involve them shouting aggressively at each other and the tops of their voices

and several of them had taken to pedal carts and appeared to be racing each other.

There’s a decent view over the harbour towards Petone, where we’d been the day before, and Lowry Bay.

There’s a lagoon called Whairepo Lagoon, where the Wellington rowing club has its HQ. It’s encompassed by two bridges, the Love Lock bridge

and, rather more interestingly on the other side, the “City to Sea” Bridge

which we went to investigate, but not before having a spot of lunch, at a decent eatery called St. Johns. There’s a rather intriguing entry to the bridge on the left hand side as you see above,

and the whole thing is the basis for 1993 artwork by Para Matchitt. There’s a lot of it, and it’s difficult to capture photographically, but I hope this gives you the idea.

Our walk back to the hotel took us past the Wellington Central Library, with its striking supporting pillars. There’s a lot of work going on around there, but I bet it’ll be lovely when it’s finished.

Back at the hotel we had time for a cup of Twinings Finest Earl Grey before we had to strike out again, and I’ll tell you all about that…..some other time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taking a Deco at Napier

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Monday 23 February 2026 – Astonishingly, our legs were up to the task of getting us out of bed and heaving us about as we packed and set up our departure on the next segment of our trip – destination Napier, the Art Deco city.  But we didn’t head off directly, as we had two things to do beforehand. The first was coffee and, handily, Waimarino’s railway station

has a cafe, which serves damn’ fine coffee.

Fortified, or at least caffeinated, we headed off in the general direction, not of Napier, but of Horopito, some fifteen minutes’ drive away, because we had one of those assignations that come about through serendipity. Bur first we had another couple of rail landmarks to explore, starting with the Makatote Viaduct, built between 1905 and 1908, and, at the time, the tallest viaduct in New Zealand – the last construction on the North Island trunk railway.

Just up the road from the viaduct is The Last Spike Memorial, which marks the location where the “last spike” was driven in 1908 for the completion of that North Island Trunk line.

Then, on to Horopito for our serendipity-led encounter. Here’s how it came about:

  • Forty years ago, I lived in Sweden, and, at the exceedingly popular Stockholm pub, the Tudor Arms, met Karin, with whom I have been in contact ever since.
  • Three years ago, Karin walked the Camino de Santiago from France to Spain. Not too long afterwards, Jane and I did the same, adding that significant activity to the bonds between us.
  • One year ago, Karin walked the Camino de Santiago again, and met Jess, who lives in Horopito.  Jess became part of Karin’s Camino Family, sustained through the medium of WhatsApp (as well as drinking and eating in Spain).
  • Two weeks ago, Jess hiked the Tongariro Crossing, just as we had a couple of days ago.

So the various tendrils of internet connectivity and social media reached out between three disparate pockets of people and Jess and we had agreed to meet. The original plan was to get together the evening after we had completed our Crossing, but we were utterly knackered, and thus completely incapable of socialising; and so we deferred until yesterday, which worked well, since Horopito is pretty much on the route between Waimarino and Napier.

We had a really lovely time meeting Jess and her husband Ian at their wonderful place, which is sufficiently far off the beaten track that the road to it is not quite sealed all the way. They showed us around some of their 15 acres, and particularly introduced us to their alpacas, which had been brought in as lawn managers (and had just been shorn).

After that delightful encounter, we headed off to Napier.  We passed a signpost to Horopito’s motor museum

but we’re not sure that it’s actually in operation as a museum, as such.

Heading east to Napier, there is a choice between two routes – the main road, which means heading back through Taurangi, or the direct route across the hills in between, a road which Ian had insisted we drive for the scenery and which our Tongariro guide Simon said he thought was “probably sealed” (i.e. tarmac as opposed to a dirt road). Since Tomtom agreed with this assessment, we headed along it. And we were very glad we did. The scenery was fantastic for the whole trip, which should have taken some three hours but ended up being nearer four, as we kept stopping to gawp at (and, of course, photograph) the landscapes we passed.

As we started, the scenery was typical, lovely, North Island landscapes.

The middle section of the route led through more mountainous surroundings.

which were heavily planted with Monterey pine trees, with clear evidence of both logging and replanting.

and then we emerged back into the less hilly and more pastoral plains of the east coast

before reaching Napier, approaching along Marine Parade.

Out accommodation was at 415 Marine Parade,

which is a very classy and well-run B&B. We were greeted by Tom, who showed us into our large and comfortable room and made sure we knew how things worked (including a very neat electronic access arrangement).

One thing we hadn’t appreciated until we arrived there was that the day we arrived, Sunday 22 February, was the last day of the 2026 Napier Art Deco Festival, a major event appreciating the history of the city and its recovery in the aftermath of the huge earthquake which hit it in February 1933. There had been thousands of people from all over the globe visiting the city as part of this celebration (more of which later) and we were a bit worried that we’d not be able to get in to any local restaurant. We were therefore pleased to be able to find a table at the restaurant next door, the Marine Bistro. There, we had a very tasty meal, and a lovely encounter with five ladies who had been celebrating as part of the Festival and who had dressed up to match the vibe of the entire thing,

After eating, we thought it would be a good idea to understand where we would need to meet for our planned activities in Napier, so we went for a walk. Obviously.

Downtown Napier is about a kilometre from 415 Marine Parade, and the walk gave us a chance to get our bearings, to see some of the art deco architecture for which the town in famed (much more of that later),

and a few other highlights, particularly vehicles which had clearly been part of the Festival activities,

and some of the attractive older (non-deco) buildings,

some of which were thoughtfully decorated.

That was yesterday; today we headed once again to downtown Napier to join a walking tour that was intended to give us a greater insight into the art deco history of the place. The meeting place was the headquarters of the Art Deco Trust, which hosts the walking tours which we were about to join, and also stages vintage car tours

with suitably-dressed drivers.

We started in a small theatre in the Trust’s building on Memorial Square

where our guide, Bev, gave us a short introductory speech before showing us a video about the 1933 earthquake which has caused the birth of the city as it is known today. Before the film, she showed a map comparing pre- and post-earthquake Napier, and the difference between the two is utter.

Here’s that map in more detail.

The town of Napier is mid-right in both maps; but in the pre-earthquake map you can see that there was was once a large lagoon north-west of the town. During the earthquake, the ground rose by as much as two metres, and the lagoon emptied out into the sea – a pretty cataclysmic event, which I simply hadn’t appreciated, and with a consequent loss of over 250 lives – New Zealand’s deadliest natural disaster. The video showed some of the scenes of the time.

You can see the boats now on dry land because of the rise in ground level, as well as the devastation caused by the earthquake – no electricity, no roads, no rails reached the town, and the water supply was cut, which meant that the fire brigade had no water supply to try to put out the inevitable fire which followed the shocks (they tried pumping sea water, but shingle jammed the pumps).  The final picture shows “Tin Town”, an array of 54 shops eventually set up under a tin roof in Clive Square to service the needs of citizens – actually New Zealand’s first shopping mall!

Bev went into some detail after the film about the heroic response of military and civil organisations to support the town in its hour of need. Particularly important was support from a naval ship. The death toll might have been much higher had the Royal Navy ship HMS Veronica not been in port at the time. Within minutes of the shock the Veronica had sent radio messages asking for help. The sailors joined survivors to fight the fires, rescue trapped people and help give them medical treatment. The Veronica’s radio was used to transmit news of the disaster to the outside world and to seek assistance.

The New Zealand government quickly realised that the Napier borough council would be overwhelmed with organising any rebuild and appointed two commissioners for this task, John Barton and Lachlan Bain Campbell. Between them, they shepherded through an astonishing building programme, which evaluated the different ways that buildings should be constructed in future to be earthquake-proof: brick buildings had collapsed and wooden ones had burnt, and reinforced concrete was selected as the material to be used as the basis for construction. Part of this lesson came from the Public Trust Office building,

a reinforced concrete edifice which was the only major building still standing after the earthquake.

The result is the town as it is today, or rather city – it was made a city in 1951. Rather than rebuild the Victorian-era structures that had been there, the modern styles of the day were adopted. Bev showed us examples of the four different architectural templates that were used in the rebuild:

Spanish mission; Prairie style; Deco Moderne; and Stripped Classical. These are these days grouped together under the “Art Deco” style label that applies to key Napier buildings. So then Bev led us on a tour of some of these buildings.

Central Fire Station
Municipal Theatre
Daily Telegraph offices. The Telegraph managed to print a daily bulletin after the earthquake
Demonstrating chamfered corners (greater traffic visibility) and cable-supported verandas (more fireproof than wood pillars)
Actually a modern replacement of a deco building which was torn down despite citizen protest
Example of a “double eyebrowed” building, with two ledges behind which windows are recessed.

Bev showed us many of the other architectural flourishes involved in the reconstruction effort, such as some of the original mosaic street names in the sidewalks,

other mosaic entrances to shops,

a couple of building interiors

and a couple of statues.

Sheila, on the left, is a statue of the daughter of a key architect in the rebuild, Ernest Williams, who was the Carnival Queen in the very first Napier Carnival in 1933, staged to celebrate the success and speed of the rebuild as well as a tribute to those who lost their lives. She is waving to someone, and the someone is a boy who has climbed a lamppost on the opposite side of the street. These are recent statues, from 2010 and 2014 respectively.

Bev gave us, as is always the case with these tours, more information than I can remember or that I can cram into a post such as this, but I hope it gives you a flavour of the town and why it is what it is.

We saw a few other quirks, such as Theatre Lane, which has some street art. This is a little bit of it

but it carries on the whole length

and at the far end is a representation of film stars of the 30s and 40s.

It’s a bit difficult to distinguish them, but here, for example, is Harold Lloyd and his famous clock

Here ‘s the full list, in case you want to look for the details.

Among the last of the things that Bev showed us was a traffic light pedestrian crossing that showed, instead of the usual Red Man – Green Man, a version with Sheila walking her dog.

There was a lot more to see, including many period vehicles, mostly left over from the Festival

and, of course, the Town Train

We also looked in to the Municipal Theatre.

Tour over, we treated ourselves to coffee at an excellent coffee shop in Tennyson Street called Georgia

before taking in the Veronica Sun Bay, a tribute to HMS Veronica’s key role in aiding and assisting in the aftermath of the earthquake;

the name plate is the actual one that adorned the ship. Then we headed back to our accommodation, past a group of pre-earthquake buildings called the Six Sisters

for a bit of a rest, and a chat and drink with hosts Esther and Tom and the other guests. The day ended with another walk back to downtown Napier for a meal at K Kitchen, in the Masonic Hotel building (which you can see in the background of this memorial statue from the Boer War).

We have one more day in Napier which should be an opportunity for me to get out the Big Lens for the first time this trip. So do please come back to find out how it worked out.