2026-06-18 • Gisborne - Napier and Wairarapa

After leaving Gisborne we spent a slow day at Māhia peninsula - we drove around, climbed a small mountain and found a sleepy seal in the rocks close to the sea. We spent the night close by, and made another fire to finish the marshmallows.

Next day we started to drive our way to Napier. We stopped in Wairoa and found a really cool clay artist that opened a shop there not so long ago - we had an interesting chat talked about how he was supposed to go to Wellington to try to work in Weta, but in the end life went another way and became surfer and bus/truck driver. Now he was back to sculpting. All the sculptures were really cool, detailed and transporting you to their own universe.

Napier was a really nice city, it’s beautiful to see all the Art Deco facades and buildings from the same year - it looked a bit like a movie set - but was really well taken care of in the city centre. We finally had non fried fish for dinner (and a delicious kumara mash with miso, rosemary and brown butter). The gardens are also really well taken care of, we could imagine how beautiful it will be in Spring.

We drove out of Napier and went to do some hiking at Te Mata - might be unrelated but we saw a few things there that could kill you - it was really cool landscape not too far from town. We quickly passed by Havelock North and Hastings and then continue the road.

Weather was not really nice… so we arrived to the campsite in the middle of nowhere, dark, raining and with 100kmh wind gusts - it was fun though the van was shaking a lot.

Photos

• Drawing Raglan Coffee Roasters

• Before the peninsula

• From the peak

• Snapper rock

• Sea within the sea

• Water in Mars

• Find a seal

• Sleepy

• Multicolored Maori

• Preparing the fire

• Cat Punk Shop

• Golden alien

• A Punk

• Blackbird

• From hell

• Squad

• Evolution

• The dog

• Robot

• Knight

• The devil

• The mask

• East end cafe

• Tortilla con cosas

• Art Deco

• Hey

• Palm Deco

• A sword shop

• The pub

• Got flowers

• Sunken garden mill

• Black and white and yellow

• Silvereye

• Color full

• Napier

• Masonic

• The abandoned art deco centre

• Buddhist

• Sourdough

• The facades

• Church or silo

• Ho

• Not open 7 days

• Back in time

• Most of them 1933

• Double shadow

• Perfection

• Look at the sky

• Te Mata

• Te Mata Peak I guess some people jump to see

• Ancient shells

• Giant brews

• Little ice cream

Walks

• 20260620_Te Mata