Sunday passed in a haze of sunshine and champagne at the Gatsby Picnic. Everyone was decked out in their best 20s/30s finery, to enjoy sandwiches and cakes on the lawn area at the gorgeous promenade, which has blooming flower beds, outdoor pools and the Sound Shell stage area, all built on the rubble remains of old Napier, after the earthquake in 1931. Some groups even had proper bone china tea sets and old gramophones playing music of the era.

Our day certainly started with a pop, when I opened the champagne and the cork bounced off my forehead and landed on the next group’s picnic rug. Oops.

Angus and I spent the day with our friends from Melbourne, Pete and David, and we had a scream telling each other funny stories and getting tipsy. We had intended on having a good walk around, but the afternoon passed so quickly that before we knew it, it was 5pm.

This is when we decamped to the Masonic Hotel and managed to score a table on the terrace, where we did lots of people watching. The guys coined the new phrase ‘tart deco’, referring to some of the older ladies flaunting their assets in flapper outfits.

They also told us the story of a woman they met wearing a fur stole, which she had said was ‘a bit of old dog’. Hope not!

It was a little disconcerting though, seeing so much real fur on show, including a woman who had draped her fox fur stole, including head, legs and tail, over the back of her chair. That’s one thing I wouldn’t like about the 20s/30s era.

We stumbled back to the holiday park at some point when it was dark and I reluctantly put away my deco outfit, hoping that I’ll get to wear it again sometime soon. I’ll even persuade Angus to dress up next time ;0)

Napier Art Deco festival. It definitely has the wow factor.

Saturday afternoon, 36 degrees in the shade and the streets of Napier were swinging to the sound of jazz. Gents in boaters and braces, ladies in elegant tea dresses and cheeky flapper outfits, all with a backdrop of the art deco architecture of Napier – it really was like stepping back in time.

There are so many things to see and do during the festival – some events are free, some are ticketed, but whatever you have on your itinerary, it’s going to be a blast.

I had grand plans of visiting the Art Deco sale, having some dancing lessons, watching a 1920s movie at the outdoor cinema and doing a walking tour of the city. However, partly due to the heat and partly due to being so overwhelmed by the sights and sounds, we didn’t do half of what we thought.

However, we saw the parade of 250 beautiful classic cars (some of which were worth NZ$1 million), people dancing in the streets, old war planes flying over the beach and steam engines chugging up and down the streets.

One of the best aspects of it all was meeting such great people. We got chatting to Vic and Jan from Napier in the bar of the old Masonic Hotel and although we had already booked and paid for a holiday park, they offered us their driveway and use of their bathroom for free, as well as having a full on BBQ. We still have their address so we’ll be in touch.

We also have new friends in Melbourne – Pete and David. We met these guys at a bus stop waiting to go into the town and over the next couple of days had a great time. More on the Sunday afternoon Gatsby picnic in the next blog!

After another early morning wake-up (6am – why can’t I get up this time at home?), we planned to get to Auckland’s Sky Tower in time for it opening. Luckily, when we arrived at 8.30am it was open. We both forgot to check the times.

The Sky Tower is like a smaller version of the CN Tower (Toronto), but still tall enough if you are considering some of the activities. You can walk around the perimeter, on the outside, on a 2 foot ledge, attached to a wire. Or, you can fling yourself off, attached to a couple of wires and hurtle towards the pavement, landing on a trampoline target (that isn’t unlike the one from Jamie and the Magic Torch – showing my age here).

I had actually considered the second of those options whilst sat on the comfort of my own couch, in my onesie, with a cup of tea. It’s very different when you see what’s involved.

My name is Dianne Howard and I’m a chicken.

It took all my resolve to walk across the 3 feet bit of glass floor.

The visit was good though. It’s really interesting to get a 360 view of Auckland – the harbour, the suburbs and the volcanoes. Yep, there are 7 of them (at least), the youngest, Rangitoto Island, being only 600 years old, which isn’t long in geological terms. Or as Angus likes to say, less than a knat’s fart.

Well, we’ve journeyed to Napier today in our fancy campervan to see the Art Deco Festival. More to follow soon!

You may be wondering why our last two photos were titled ‘Crafty’ and ‘Very Crafty’. Well, as we mentioned in a previous post, NZ is very keen on craft beer, or real ale as we refer to it in Blighty.

After trying to kick the ass of jetlag a third time, we finally made it back to our favourite bar, Vulture’s Lane, in Vulcan Lane (which is obviously where Spock and Kirk meet for a beer) on Thursday afternoon.

We decided on a taster selection of six different beers, out of the 30 pump and bottled beers available. For fellow ale lovers, we’ve named them below (Brewery, ale name, ale type) – don’t you just love some of the brewery names!

• Yeastie Boys ‘Golden Perch’ (Summer ale)
• Yeastie Boys/Brews Brothers ‘Fork and Brewer Collaboration’ (Spring ale)
• Ben Middlemiss Brewing ‘White Lady’ (Witbier)
• Behemoth Brewing Company ‘Iron Harvest’ (Saison)
• Liberty ‘Oh Brother’ (Pale Ale)
• Governor ‘Governor’ (Lager)

They were all really good, but our favourites were ‘White Lady’ and ‘Fork and Brewer Collaboration’.

As we were enjoying the Winter Olympics snowboard events on the TV, we also decided to try the Epic Pale Ale. Also very good!

We did intend on going back again later that evening for some more banter, but as you might have guessed, we fell asleep. Ah well, it was a good day :0)

Damn jetlag. By Wednesday we thought we’d beaten it, but it snook up on us again.

The day started as usual, with us awake at 6.30am. That’s not too bad as we like to be out and about early. It so happened that Barcelona were playing Man City in the UK on Tuesday night, so it was at 8.45am Wednesday NZ time.

We missed the first half, which wasn’t an issue as Iain (Angus’s dad) was providing updates via text. By the second half we found a bar that was showing the game, and serving beer. My first instinct was ‘No way, not at this time in the morning’. But I noticed other people drinking and thought ‘oh well, when in Rome’.

Two halves of lager later and I was zombied. But, at least we’d got to celebrate two Barca goals while on the other side of the world.

We went out for a walk to get some coffee, fresh air and to sort out a sim card – it’s not always easy to get wifi in NZ, so buying pre-paid data makes sense.

Fast forward to 4pm and we thought we’d go back to the apartment for an hour’s siesta.

Woke up at 10pm. Had pizza. Fell asleep at 11.30pm, determined to feel normal the next day. Check back later to see if we did!

*N.B. The ‘lost day’ was due to jetlag, nothing to do with morning beers ;0)