A Tale of Two Cities - The Sequel

 And the cities are Napier and Gisborne.

Friday we were in Napier.  We were there before in 2015.  It was so memorable that we remembered very little about our last visit.  And, sadly, this visit will also be less than memorable.  We booked an excursion through Get Your Guide that was to include wine tasting, chocolate tasting, honey tasting, and some scenic touring.  We started with the scenic touring of Napier with its art deco history and the story of the earthquake that devastated the city in 1931.

We then went up Bluff Hill for an overview of the harbor.  It is quite incredible to see how much timber they export.

After that, we were apparently too early to go to the wine tasting so our guide just drove around some neighborhoods to kill time.  Not good!  We ultimately made it to the Mission Winery, supposedly the oldest in New Zealand.  The grounds were nice, the wines not so nice, at least to our palette.  

The next stop was supposed to be the chocolate factory, but the road was closed so no chocolate for us!  Then there was some more driving to our lunch stop - a decent place that had a terrific display of sculptures from Zimbabwe.

Then it was a stop at the honey outlet.  We tasted lots of different honeys, but for my taste the honey we get at our local farmer's market is much better.

Last was the drive up Te Mata peak for good views of the surrounding area.

We've done many Get Your Guide excursions on our cruises with much success but this one was most disappointing.  Oh, well.

After the tour, we were dropped off in Napier and we walked around a bit before returning to the ship.

Saturday was Gisborne, a city we had not been to.  The weather forecast was quite poor - rain all day.  Since it didn't seem like Gisborne had much to offer and it is a tender port, we thought we might just stay on the ship.  However, in the morning it was not raining so we ventured in.  More art deco, a coffee break, some shopping and a short walk along the river before the rain started.  That was about it.

Tomorrow will be our last port of call, Bay of Islands, before we disembark in Auckland on Monday.  Hopefully, the flooding in Auckland will not delay our flight home!

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry