Napier

Friday 20 October - Monday 23 October 2000

Weekend to Napier

Napier used to be almost completely surrounded by water until the calamitous earthquake of 3 February 1931. It was 10.47am on the first day of school after the summer holidays when a Richter 7.9 earthquake flattened the city but uplifted vast areas of surrounding seabed within two-and-a-half minutes. As a result of this disaster the city was almost completely rebuilt during the 1930s, giving it an Art Deco style of architecture unique to a New Zealand city and creating a 'moderne' look surprising in one of Hawke's Bay's oldest settlements.

Friday 20th October: After a regular day at work for Martijn and a day of preparing and packing for Ingrid, we left for Napier just before 7pm for the 315 kilometer trip.

We arrived at the on Kennedy Drive at about 10.45pm.

 

Saturday 21st October: The first touristic thing we did was to go on a guided Art Deco morning walk through the city. We received a label for this to show that we had paid for it.

Here are some of the points of interest that we saw:

Pania of the Reef.

The legend of "Pania of the Reef" says that Pania was a member of the Sea People but left them to dwell on land with her human lover, Karitoki. Her people were constantly calling her to return and finally when their call grew irresistible, Pania swam out to meet them for one last time. But her people drew her down into the caverns of the sea and would not let her return to the land and her lover. Today, when passing over an offshore reef, the fanciful may see in the depths Pania with her arms outstretched, still striving to return to Karitoki.

Boer War Memorial.

This statue was erected in 1906 and moved a short distance to its present position in 1947, when the soldier's head, which had disappeared after the earthquake and been rediscovered in 1938, was reinstated.

ASB Bank building.

This was originally built for the Bank of New Zealand (1932). It is New Zealand's best example of indigenous Art Deco with its decoration based on authentic Maori carving designs.

Daily Telegraph building.

This building (1932) was the home of Napier's previous local newspaper.

We had a nice lunch on Napier's beach with Cape Kidnappers in the distance:

In the afternoon we attended a show at Marineland. The dolphins were great:

 

Then we went to Opossum world where we learned about NZ's ecological nightmare:

 For dinner we drove to Hastings to Gorries family restaurant.

 

Sunday 22nd October: In the morning we went to Hawke's Bay Museum.

On street level there are several galleries and on the lower level there was a.o.t. an exhibition on the discovery of dinosaurs in Hawke's Bay and an audio-visual presentation about the 1931 earthquake. This is what the city centre looked like right after:

After having lunch (oven quiche) on one of Napier's great sunny terraces, we drove the Art Deco Tour to explore the heritage of Hawke's Bay. Here are some of the points of interest that we saw:

Park Island. 101 victims of the earthquake were buried here on 5 February 1931, 14 of them unidentified.

McDeco McDonald's.

This building used to be the Taradale hotel, but was restored and converted into a McDonald's restaurant in 1997.

Park Estate winery. Here we purchased some wines and liqueurs.

Oak Avenue. In the 1860s these oaks were planted to line the driveway to a homestead which no longer exists.

Santa Claus above Hasting's New World supermarket.

rataki Honey in Havelock North. We didn't have time to do the tour here, but we did buy several honey and bee-related gifts.

Te Mata peak. expansive views over the countryside and the Bay

For dinner we made reservations at Valentine's. After dinner we saw the Wellington Lions beat Canterbury in the NPC rugby final at the motel.

 

Monday 23rd October: The trip back home.

Bye bye from Hawke's Bay with the (still snowy) Ruahine Range in the background.

Weather: sunny about 18ºC.