The next morning, mb again off on her run (about a gazillion miles.. tri-athletes these days.. I don’t know) while I went on a leisurely hour long stroll through Napier, learning what art-deco style really is (a celebration of technology and power really).
I’ll just show 4 of the buildings..
1) As you can see, the daily telegraph buildings, the most ornate one in the city. You can see Ziggurat etc.
2) This building was build a year prior to the quake. At the time the young architect was ridiculed for building something too strong, too expensive. However, when everything within a 1/4 mile was levelled and his was still standing.. one imagines he felt slightly vindicated perhaps?
3) The architects were free to add little touches to their buildings. In this one – the Munster Chambers, there were shamrocks to show the Irish connection
4) And in this one – with a Scottish connection – you can see the Lion rampant, and thistles as ornamentation.
After the tour, I wanted revenge at gaming. However, after taking 17 strokes on a single mini-golf hole, it wasn’t to be. Back to the arcades it was, managed to even the score at car racing (in an admittedly slightly underhand way – I kinda 1/8 mentioned the fact that I’d seen a ‘Press Start button for Turbo’… it’s the little things).. and I think evening up the score at air hockey. I must say though, I think we both enjoyed the co-operative Area-51 (shoot the bad guys) game the most. Funny to play games with someone as competitive (and downright talented ;) as me.. hehhehe, joking joking.. But yes, lots of fun was had.
That night on to Hastings.. a quieter, less art-deco town. I did sing ‘American Pie’ karaoke. I think it’ll be my choice next time if I ever have to do it again. No amount of cocktails would entice mb up onto the stage though. At least, not that time.
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