Some of the places we visited feature exotic flora and fauna, ancient cultures and descendents of those cultures. Mystery. Intrigue.

And then there's Napier, New Zealand.

Back in the 1930's, the town of Napier NZ was hit by a devastating earthquake. The entire downtown area had to be rebuilt. Art Deco was all the rage then, and the new buildings that went up were virtually all in the Art Deco style. Time drifted on; Napier was sort of a backwater – nothing much changed. In the 1980s some local notables figured out that if they rehabbed the exteriors of these buildings, they would have quite the snazzy looking town and a great tourist attraction. And that's exactly what happened. They have Art Deco festivals each summer, with everyone dressed up like flappers. It's quite the time warp.

Restore theatre building

Next: Varmint Hunt

Not that she didn't appreciate the architecture, but Kathy's favorite spot in town turned out to be “Possum World”, a store/museum dedicated to the Australian possum. (The Australian possum is not anything like the North American opossum). It was imported into NZ in the late 1800s as a fur animal. With no predators of any type in NZ, the possum numbers exploded; there are now 20 possums to each citizen. (We had seen a huge amount of roadkill on our drive to Rotorua, and wondered what animal it was. Mystery solved!)

Possums here are real pests – eating rare indigenous bird eggs etc. There are big programs to keep the numbers under control – usually involving poisonous baits; but there is also a big hunting effort. Possum World documented the different way to kill possums, and sold various garments made out of possum fur. They also mix the fur with merino sheep wool for knitted sweaters. It's rumored they make good dog food too.

Beer, Here

With so much excitement, and with the weather still warm, we decided we needed to have a beer before getting back to the ship. And what bar do you supposed we found? The Hog's Breath Saloon, whose motto is “Hog's Breath is better than no breath at all”. There's a bar with the same name and logo in Key West – who would have expected a branch here? It turns out that it's an Australian chain, with several dozen branches in Australia and New Zealand.

Well, we are sure this page has whet your appetite for Napier, possum, and/or beer. Napier's a nice town, perhaps one you could grow tired of quickly but an interesting and worthwhile visit.