Day 67 - Napier and to Turangi

Hard to drag ourselves away (you'll gather by now that we heartily recommend a visit to Napier - though not in Feb when apparently thousands descend for the annual Deco festival) - a couple more favourites before we leave...

The sheer number of buildings is remarkable, and altogether so full-on as to be almost unreal; the buildings so perfect that they could nearly be Disney-esque mock ups. But everyone's going about normal business, and the occasional (annoying) hoarding over an otherwise beautifully photogenic building reminds you that each building is in fact a workaday shop or office.

We were vaguely tempted to make a 40km diversion south to a place called Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu (apparently "The Brow of a Hill Where Tamatea, the Man with the Big Knees, Who Slid, Climbed, and Swallowed Mountains, Known as Land Eater, Played his Flute to his Brother") just to see whether the town-sign would fit in the lens but not worth the detour!  At the Bluff Cove lookout over Hawke's Bay, however, we did like this coat of arms... 

showing the local version of the lion and uni-Kiwi! 

So, onward and upward, north-west to the town of Taupo and then down along the shoreline of pretty Lake Taupo (with a surface area of 238sqmiles, apparently the largest lake in NZ and probably the N Island's answer to Queenstown for jet-skiing, paragliding and the like - more gentle pleasures for us though ...)

and overnight at the lake's southern-most point at Turangi (apparently famed for its rainbow trout-fishing on the Tongariro River - what can I say though? there's not a lot else going on!!)