Today, we arrive a bit later in the day to Napier port.

Shawna was off to go on a river rafting trip.   I had to bow out of the excursion because of my back problems which are much worse after the kayak trip.  We will see what that means for me later.  So Betty and I went on a bus tour of town.

Napier, NZ is a small city known for exporting wood, wine, and its 30’s style art deco buildings.

In 1931, an earthquake destroyed many buildings in the city when the land rose 10 feet. The construction after the dust settled was primarily art deco.  Thousands of acres of land was also added to the area.

Betty and I took a scenic drive around town and a visit to the local Aquarium.  The ride around town was “interesting”.  This is a city of just over 65,000.  Our bus driver/tour guide was very proud of his hometown.  We rode all over where he pointed out the things he liked about the city.  Lots of commentary about nice pubs, restaurants, shops and of course the Art Deco homes.

After an hour, we arrived at the Aquarium.  There were nice displays which included the normal fish found in most waters of New Zealand but also some lizards and a few unusually animals.  ​

The area of interest for us was the small penguins which were very active. ​

The next was the nocturnal kiwi display.  Sadly, this was the best picture I got.

A large tank had many fish and several very large rays was near the end of the tour.  The tank was large. Two divers were in the tank feeding the fish.

Back on the bus for us and to the ship.  We hope that Shawna was having a good time on her excursion.

Shawna arrived back about 6pm.  She enjoyed her rafting trip on the Mohaka River.  They had some great rapids.