28 November-10 December 2025
Napier
28-30 November 2025
Although we had two more days scheduled in Okahune, Bonnie suggested that instead we zip over to Napier, known for its Art Deco buildings. We said goodbye to Daniel at his lodge and left for a three-hour drive to the east coast. Daniel told us the route would be spectacular: “Like the Grand Canyon, but green!” He was right!
The map does not show how narrow and crooked the road is between Okahune and Napier. And it doesn’t capture the heights or the chasms. Nor does it suggest how remote the area feels. There is not a single cafe, gas station, or shop along the way. This is a region of immense sheep and cattle stations. After curve after curve in the road for an hour, Bonnie, who never gets car sick, requested a stop to get out and clear her head.
On the Way
Art Deco Walking Tour
Once In Napier we signed up for a great Saturday morning walking tour lead by a veteran high school teacher. She had lots of enthusiasm, anecdotes, and discipline to keep our group moving. In 1931 Napier, a thriving port town of 16,000, suffered a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that leveled the downtown, an area about four blocks by four blocks. More than one percent of the population died. Because the national economy was in the midst of the Depression, workers flooded in for construction jobs and completed the rebuild in only 18 months.
The chosen style was Art Deco, first made popular in a 1925 exhibition in Paris. Napier has one of the largest ensembles of Art Deco buildings in the world, rivaling Miami Beach. Think vertical lines, geometric shapes, and symbols of progress as in the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building. But not until the 1980s did the local community begin to appreciate the value of this architectural wealth. Since then, they have founded nonprofits to foster preservation, launched an annual festival, and, of course, have offered walking tours.
One tidbit we learned is that verandas (extended roofs over the sidewalks ubiquitous throughout New Zealand downtowns) are not there to protect pedestrians from the weather but to shade merchandise in the shop windows from fading in the intense sun. If there is no veranda, the building probably housed a bank or attorneys.
This and Thats
Porches
Wine Tasting
Eats
Rotorua
30 November-03 December 2025
Although the hot springs in Rotorua have attracted tourists since the 1880s, our reason for going was to see Simon, Amy, Henry, and Nina. Simon is Bonnie’s New Zealand “nephew,” the son of David and Di Banks. We know him from his visits to San Francisco and his winter as a ski instructor in Tahoe. He and Amy are both urban planners, which cements our links. Of course, Robert fit in two days of fishing while Bonnie explored the large downtown.
On the Way
CHUCK: Sorry. No pics of pastoral landscapes!
Simon, Amy, Henry, and Nina
While the kids played and Simon guided them in a game of chess, Amy fixed a great meal that included a terrific tomato and cucumber salad.
Turangi
03-10 December 2025
Next stop: Turangi and six days of fishing for Robert. We based ourselves at the Tongariro Lodge at the southern edge of Lake Taupo. The lodge, catering to fishermen, is set in a beautiful wooded area with extensive manicured lawns. As second-time visitors we were upgraded from a “chalet” to a “villa” with two bedrooms and two baths, but we were most thrilled by the washer and dryer.
The main building is a lovely knotty pine lodge where we go for drinks and dinner every night and have a chance to chat with other fly fishers. The dining room for up to 30 people is surprising elegant, yet simple, the food is quite good, and the service, as in many restaurants, is provided by twenty-somethings from all over the world on three-month work/travel visas. We made friends with the chef Le’An and she began concocting main dishes and deserts just for us, catering to Bonnie’s dairy-free diet!
While Robert fishes, Bonnie drives two miles into the town of Turangi for lunch and errands. At first Turangi puzzled her. Population 4,000 but no old buildings, no historic center, no retail along the edge of the highway. Instead, a long block in from the highway there is a small, rundown shopping mall, half empty. Behind it is a maze of curved streets with modest houses (Swedish city planning) and lots of leafy trees from the 1960s and 70s.
Wikipedia revealed all. The town was built quickly in the late 1960s to house more than 5,000 workers brought in to construct a massive hydro-electric project. Eventually, the population reached 9,000. (Some workers were even imported from Treviso, Italy, because of their expertise in tunneling.) In 2023, we stayed in a very similar town, Twizel, on the South Island. Since completion of the energy project, Turangi has shrunk to 4,000 and marketed itself as a tourist destination, especially for trout fishing.
On the Way
Lodging
Grounds
Drinks and Eats at the Lodge
This and Thats
Driving on the Left, or Right
It was bound to happen. As Bonnie was driving herself back from lunch in town, she turned out onto New Zealand Highway One and abruptly realized she was facing the wrong direction. Ack! Fortunately the speed limit here was only 60 kph (35 mph) and traffic was light. But she was pinned into a short center turn lane. On her left was a median at least a half block long with big boulders. On her right was a single lane of traffic bounded by a ditch. She scrambled for the emergency flashers, and realized she had to wait patiently as cars passed her for a big break in traffic before she could move forward (in the wrong direction) and cross to the correct side of the road. All’s well that ends well.
Fishing Widow
While Robert fishes, Bonnie sleeps late, reads in bed, drives to town for lunch, walks around all the blocks, picks up a few groceries, finds some local newspapers, studies Australian sunscreen choices at the pharmacy, makes plans with her New Zealand “relatives,” reads A History of Farming in New Zealand, drives around the neighborhood, reads New Zealand mysteries, checks out local television shows, does research on the next destination, calls friends in California, and does laundry.
Next Stop—Bonnie’s Kiwi Family!