Circumnavigating New Zealand — Arriving into Napier

Wellington, on New Zealand’s South Island, is where our two cruises diverged. Our 2020 cruise departed South Island and headed back to Sydney, Australia. But our 2019 voyage aboard Majestic Princess headed to North Island, with our first stop being Napier.

So, for the rest of this series on New Zealand, I’ll be concentrating solely upon our 2019 voyage aboard Majestic Princess. And as for today’s article, most of the photos you see today were taken along a stretch of beach extending from the National Aquarium of New Zealand, through the Napier Reef Garden, past the Sunken Gardens, and into town.

First up is some of the statuary found outside the National Aquarium of New Zealand:

Heading north from the aquarium takes you first to a rather picturesque water feature replete with birds, at least on this occasion:

We continued northward on foot, taking in the sights along the beach. And there were a lot of sights along this stretch:

There was a lot of driftwood in this area, including some bizarrely shaped intrigue such as this “duck”:

As we made our way toward the Sunken Gardens, which we’re going to save for next Monday, we came across a wooden “whale skeleton” structure of impressive size:

We’ll head back and cover the Sunken Garden next week. On Wednesday we’re going look at some interesting Victorian architecture known as the Six Sisters:

Then head into town. But for now I’ll leave you with a preview of what to expect in downtown Napier: