Prison visit and a 7 dollar fix

November 14th

Lots of rain overnight, of course that got me worried about how we would get away seeing as the ground was sodden but the old girl (I believe she is over 20) did us proud and pulled away with not a wheel spin whatsoever.

Today we headed back to Napier. Ian hoped to find a Toyota dealer to supply a replacement part for the brakes and success. For the sum of $7 he came out with this. Yea, we can get our $1 coin back

With it being so miserable outside the best place was an indoor attraction. The Napier Prison was the place then.

A lot of history about the place, It's not just been a prison. This taken from the WEBSITE  

Step into the past and visit Napier Prison. With over 130 years as an operating Prison, Napier Prison housed men, women and children. The Prison not only contained criminals: it was also a place of execution and a home for the mentally unwell. Napier Prison was constructed in 1862 and was used until the early 1990s, being officially decommissioned in 1993. In addition to being a prison, the location was also used as an orphanage and a psychiatric unit. During the 19th century, four hangings were conducted at the prison.

 

He deserves to be hanged!!!

 The prison looked its age. Steel barriers stopped us going into several rooms, probably because of health and safety. It is an old prison after all. In fact, I believe it is the oldest in New Zealand and has the inevitable Ghosts stories associated with it. This from Wiki, 

There have been many reports of ghostly occurrences at the site such as unexplained footsteps, disembodied faces, doors opening and closing on their own, and the ghost of a murderer on the anniversary of his execution. The best-known former prisoner is Roland Edwards, a mass murderer whose spirit is said to haunt the area. He died on July 15 and paranormal activity is reputedly more prevalent around the anniversary of his death. Prolific New Zealand-based paranormal research team Haunted Auckland have made a few visits to the prison, conducting detailed overnight investigations, in the hopes of documenting evidence to back up some of the reports.

Nevertheless the visit was worth the money, pressing numbered buttons on the audio handsets told the history at key places, and we came away wondering about all those poor souls incarcerated for just stealing a loaf of bread, including very young children, the conditions must have been awful. 

Talk about a change in weather. Blue skies seen in the distance as we came out of the prison. Having spent much longer there than we had thought we decided to stay in Napier for tonight. There was a lovely Centennial garden with a waterfall as we walked back which just had to be visited.

 

Back to the same spot overlooking the ocean, a browse through some of the pamphlets got from an i site, and it was decided to head toward Gisborne tomorrow, stopping on route to walk to the Shine Waterfall.