We woke at 6am to watch the tugs docking the Manet in the only container berth in the Port. A huge number of logs were being loaded in the other berths. We were told that Napier exports millions of cases of apples in container each year. They had forklift type cranes for moving the containers around and very high gantry type for loading them.
Hamish Jamison, the travel agent who arranged our trip met us with his wife at 9am and immediately gave us a tour of the city and shouted us a drink at the cafe. He also signed us up on a German ship, the Aurora, to get us from Korea to Auckland on September 27. We just need a ship from Aukland on October 12 or thereabouts to make it home on schedule.
Napier is the Art Deco capital of the world. Most of the town was rebuilt in 1932-3 after the earthquake and fire of Febuary 1931. We spent a long time in the Art Deco shop and bought postcards and a poster of a 1935 Ford V8. We walked along the pebbly beach and up to Bluff Hill for a panoramic view of the Bay and town. Pictures will be in our next.
From the top of the hill we zoomed in on this Volvo log handler which was attacking a humungous stack.
Looks like a great trip.
ReplyDeleteHave an L&P and some chups for us in NZ !!