Day 4 - Napier

Napier is a cutsey art deco city that had to be rebuilt after the ‘31 earthquake that destroyed almost every building in the downtown. We took the shuttle bus into town and looked into shop windows, then strolled along the beach that contains no sand. It all left with the quake and was replaced by small dark pebbles that are not so inviting to walk on. There is a nice walking/biking path for sea viewing, however. Napier is a retirement/tourist town that is the largest crossbred wool center in the Southern Hemisphere, and is one of the largest apple, pear and stone fruit producing areas in N.Z. It is also steeped in Maori history, and was visited by Capt. Cook. Now you know.
I just received a text from our Melbourne friend. It’ll be good to see him next week. Yes, there will be pictures!
Last night’s entertainment consisted of the ship’s band and singers/dancers. Tonight we have an Aussie cabaret star. We shared the bus ride back to the ship with the music man from Michael’s Piano Club, who promises to play "Georgia" for me if we come listen to him:-) He accurately identified my accent, as he worked for a time in Atlanta.
Since we are in port, there isn’t a lot going on onboard of interest, so reading and watching a tv movie was our afternoon entertainment...activities that are in short supply when we are at home. We set sail at 4p, heading to Wellington...the nightly show begins in an hour. Life is good on the High Sea!