Day 128 - Gisborne & Napier

Gisborne is a BEAUT. After a tiring but beautiful drive (through what looks JUST like Cornwall/Devon), twisting around hills and scooting through valleys, we arrived in Gisborne. The YHA (youth hostel association) hostel was a beaut, the man who ran it was super cool, and we settled down in the final hour of beautiful sunshine to drink cider on the decking and got drunk.



Gisborne itself is nice. It kinda looks like any other american/kiwi town, grid streets, not heaps of character, but enough to distinguish it from the other towns. But for our two days, its DRENCHED in sunshine, and looks great. After drunkenly watching Ghostbusters, we slept off our hangovers until the mid-afternoon, then walked for a couple of hours up to the highest point of the town, and down again. It was nice.







In the morning, we hopped back in the laser, and decided to visit Napier. We'd read it was a "totally art-deco city", because an earthquake in the 50s destroyed everything, so it was all rebuilt art-deco-style. What a highlight. Anyway, it was (again) sun-drenched, and everything looks good in the sunshine. But the buildings were cool, the palm trees were tall, and the people were nice. We walked on the beach a little, had a routy KFC, and headed off for Taupo before the sun went down.