After arriving from Lake Taupo, we still had a few hours in the day, so we went to check out a local winery for Jennifer before doing a quick tour of Napier for its art deco style (it was destroyed by an earthquake almost 100 years ago, so they used the opportunity to rebuild it differently). It was nothing to write home about, but still fun to see:

On to the art deco:

The next morning, we took a tour to see Gannets, birds related to boobies we had seen in Galapgos:

native NZ ducks

here they are, they like company :)

they have no fear of humans, you can be 1m from you and they'll ignore you

the babies were already somewhat grown

couple preening one another

and making a little dance

It was late in the mating season, but the males find sea weed to offer to females so that they can pair for life:

who wants my nice seaweed?

this poor bird is late for finding a mate

offering a feather seems like a nice gift too ;)

After the birds, we quickly stopped a small petting zoo on the way:

5 legs

I'm a little piggy and here's my snout. Oink oink oink :)

The rest of the day was spent in wineries:

and by 17:30, it was all over, everything was closed, so we had to go home and find dinner