Napier is known for it’s Art Deco architecture, and it fashions itself the ‘Art Deco Capital of the World’. So Marion (whom I met previously in Opotiki) and I set out to walk around the town and see the sites. It was quite a bit longer than originally planned (the loop below is what we ended up doing – all 14km of it).

The part marked ‘Big Hill’, well that is indeed a big hill cutting through the middle of the town. But first, it was to the waterfront area, where most of the tourists will flock to. Just a series of pictures to follow for that part. The first one is actually of my hostel, a pretty nice place really.

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I heard of (and seen for myself) the whole ‘Starbucks on multiple corners of the same intersection’ phenomenon. I can understand the need in giant downtown cities with access to thousands of customers. But giant grocery stores in a town of 50,000?

Probably have to expand that picture for full effect. Countdown is the equivalent of a Loblaws here in New Zealand – it tends to be a bit more upscale for shopping than the other options. Thus, I don’t shop at it when there are other options (New World, and the cheapest – PaknSave). While I was diligent in my research of this odd phenomenon of seeing two same-name grocery stores sitting across the road from each other by going into both of them (they are indeed, the exact same prices inside and everything), I took the third option – the PaknSave sitting just beside the Countdown in the forefront of the picture. Yay for cheap groceries! Tasty burritos for dinner tonight for me! I’m excited!