Visiting Napier, on the east of North Island, New Zealand/Carlos Pueblo

Visiting Napier, on the east of North Island, New Zealand/Carlos Pueblo
After Wellington, we continue sail north along the east coastal line of the north island of New Zealand to another lovely city of Napier. The port authority provides shuttle bus service for passengers to the city center. The first stop is by a beautiful garden in front of the city center, several blocks square like some of the ports we have passed by. I had had a leisure march toward the direction of the National Aquarium of New Zealand. The beach is dark color sand very unique than most white color sand beach, in between the Marina Parade Boulevard
and the beach, the city has arranged several facilities to serve the beach goers, like parking for the recreation vehicles with full set up. Small parks and gardens to beautify the scenery.

I chatted with the RV owners and they displayed and explained how they designed the vehicle. They are actually several kinds of Toyota minivan or utility vehicles with logical divisions of bed or beds, water tank shelf, food pantry, and folding furniture area, etc. It's very much compact than what I have seen in the United States camping area. A young man came to the port to join a group of 9 to operate an old sail boat for some multi purpose journey. He showed me how to make a second bed in that small van. If the boat is not at the sea, he would stay in his RV to save the cost of a motel on the Marina Parade. Another RV owner is a young lady sitting on the back of her utility Toyota with the trunk open and a small table also served as a desk. She was doing some lab top reading while the city park provides a free WiFi connection all over the beach and the park, as a matter of the fact, the entire city.

Stopping by the National Aquarium, I found a seat to use it's free WiFi offered by a city office on the next door for my i-phone to send my daily e-mail home. It's very nice and considerate of the locals to provide rest room free service for the visitors. I kept on marching along the beach toward another rock end not far away. There were few appeared on the lovely beach and might be the reason of not on the summer vacation yet. On the way back, I changed my route to the Marina Parade Blvd. to have a different view and I could approach to all the attractive home gardens to collect photos. This landscape reminds me some of the scenery of my Panama Canal Transit route last year on several central American ports, the same set up like fruits trees on the yards, motels for vehicles cruisers, small shops of all needs, etc.

I passed the 2nd shuttle stop and kept on marching toward the city center. A nice lady sport figure statue is on site to celebrate something significance which I forget. The city center is very attractive with antique cars drivers soliciting business. It is very lovely to walk at the small downtown and I shall describe more on my return visit. Of course, I did make it to the Clive Square and took a seat to rest and have some blooming magnolia photos.