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It took about two hours to cross Cook Strait to Wellington, on the North Island, where we spent the last four days. A couple we'd met on the Galapagos cruise have a very nice apartment there -- Adrien Brody was staying in another flat in the same building while King Kong was filming. The next day we drove to Napier, home to many buildings in the art deco style.
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Wellington is a reasonably compact city that had many locations that reminded us of San Francisco. This picture was taken from "Twin Peaks" -- after driving through a neighborhood which was densely packed houses on a hillside, we drove past "Fort Mason". |
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The fountain near the beachside apartment where our friends lived. |
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The Parliament building, known as "The Beehive". It's not very popular with the people who work there. |
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The old Parliament building it replaced. |
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Wellington at night from our friends' patio. |
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The impeccably decorated apartment. |
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Napier, on the east coast of the North Island, was devastated by an earthquake in 1931. The entire downtown area was rebuilt in the style of the day, which happened to be Art Deco. At some point they realized that this was worth preserving, and now this area attracts many tourists who come just to see the buildings. |
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A ceiling in a bank. The red and green pattern refers to a Maori pattern we saw later on a chapel ceiling near Rotorua. |
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The lobby of the town theater. |
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A detail on the street. |
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