We missed the shuttle for the second day in a row by all of 5 minutes! Punishment was a reasonably pleasant walk into Napier in the sun to see the Art Deco parade, the event of the festival. There were more than 250 cars, dancing on street corners, motorbikes, the NZ Army band, pipe bands, it was all on. Everyone was having fun.

It seemed like half of NZ was in Napier, people everywhere.
I parked myself on a traffic island after talking to a marshall and hearing the planned route.

While I was waiting for the parade to start, I received a cell phone call from John, a boatie mate from Devonport. Where was I? Standing on a traffic island in the middle of the main street of Napier was my reply. It turned out he was in Napier too within eyesight and we were catching up after the parade ! How small is NZ !

Once the parade started, I had to keep moving. Great fun.

Click on the images to see them in hi res

Entertainment in the soundshell before the parade started.

The traction engine giving people rides

After the parade finished, we looked for a cafe to have lunch.

They were all chocker with all the people so we decided we’d head back to Rafe for some lunch. As we walked, we got a phone call from John who suggested a cafe on the way .. And we met John and Katherine shortly after.. amazing. They had been house sitting out of town and had come in for the parade. We headed back to Rafe after that and joined our Waiuku friends for happy hour and later tea for our last night in Napier.