part 2 of our road trip to Napier

When we travel, we consider accommodations just a place to rest. We don't have to have anything fancy, but then, we don't camp, either, so something in the middle suits us quite well. In Napier, we stayed at Kennedy Park. It's a huge place that has all sorts of accommodations. They have camping spaces, spaces for campers, motel rooms, self-contained units--anything you could want--with swimming pools and play spaces for the kids, a restaurant and a conference room and other stuff and still a nicely-kept and quiet spot to stay. It is owned by the district council and does quite a business all year round.

The first night, we were both asleep early and up early the next morning. After a stroll on the beach, we went to the Napier Aquarium. We watched the little blue penguins being fed then wandered around the exhibits of koi, seahorses, some reptiles and turtles, alligators, eels, and other things. They have a glass tunnel where you can see sharks and eels and other fish swim overhead. Then we watched a diver feed the fish in the big tank. The diver played to the kids at the front but kept the adults' attention, too.

Even on 'aquarium'  setting, my photos didn't come out too well, but here are a few I took.

After the aquarium, we found this wonderful bakery to have some breakfast. I had never heard of this chain of bakeries--but then, I live in Taranaki where there isn't much of anything except cow paddocks, but I digress. They had so many choices from sandwiches to cakes to custard squares. If you get a chance to visit Heaven's Bakery, by all means, do!

Touch the Sea, Mapua

Click on the map for larger view to follow our virtual holiday tour.

Touch the Sea in Mapua  was a lot of fun for everybody. You can touch many of the creatures of the sea, including a huge manta ray, huge eels, baby sharks, many fish, starfish, anemones.

These baby rays were more interested in peeking at us than being touched, but they did venture up occasionally.

There were also displays that you couldn't touch, like this octopus...

and these flounders.

The restroom was appropriately decorated, too!

This is a great place to take the family if you are in the area.