Bay View Snapper Holiday Park

More Walks

by TomorrowsAngel

Ahuriri Walka walking trail through Napier’s oldest suburb Ahuriri with sites featuring the development of fishing, shipping, tobacco and wool industries. The trail is in two parts, allow 30 mins for stage one and 55 mins for stage two.

Waterfront Trail.
A 25km coastal trail featuring sites related to the 1931 Earthquake, beginning on the Marine Parade and extending through coastal suburbs of Westshore and Bay View. Allow three hours.

Napier Taupo Trailfollowing State Highway 5 between Napier and Taupo allow one day
to explore the sites including pre-European walking tracks, private gardens and historic country hotels.

Napier Wairoa Trailsea routes, coastal walking tracks, bridle and bullock trails and road and rail links are the theme of this trail extending between Napier and the northern town of Wairoa. Allow one day to view sites.

Art Deco Walk

by travelteacher

Be sure to walk around the city, looking up and down. Many of the streets are marked with the names tiled in the ground, and there are tons of "art deco" style building facades.

There is also a guided tour that leaves fom the Deco Center on Tennyson.

National Aquarium of Nz

by jono84

We visited this on our second day, partially because we were curious what all the fuss was about.

It stands aloud on the Napier waterfront, with a broad curved roof designed by Warren & Mahoney (who subsequently won a prize for it), and appears on all the tourist books and posters you see dotted around town, so alas, we paid it a visit.

I would however, much more recommend the MarineLand down the road for entertainment, as this is no more an amazing aquarium than any other you have ever been to. Besides being a tad on the pricey side, it only has ONE shark - which in truth is the thing that really beefed me. Having a logo, and an image of a shark kingdom - it has one measely shark that you could almost miss if you werent paying attention.

Ok, it has a cool conveyor-belt thing that takes you round a short while under the main tank, and you can also watch a guy with scuba gear on jump in and feed the fish, but thats where the excitement ends. A fair bit of cash for only about 40mins "entertainment", and youre outside thinking "my god, was that it?"

Actually the funiest part of it all is the best thing we saw was the Kiwi enclosure - and its an aquarium!! Ya, they have a dark room where they keep some kiwis - and after youre eyes have adjusted, you can see them running about. Its actually quite cool. And its not mentioned anywhere in the publicity!

Visit Hastings!

by Kate-Me

When visiting Napier, you also shouldn't miss visiting nearby Hastings (about 20 kms away, inland). For me, it wasn't quite as glamourous, missing those spectacular ocean views and good high vantage points, but Hastings too has its own charm and much Art Deco architecture, with the addition of more Spanish Mission architecture than Napier (which I found really interesting to see).

NAPIER - www.napierlife.com

by kiwi

"Art Deco centre of the world!!"

On 3 February 1931 around 10am the city of Napier was rocked by a large earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale. Every building was flattened and the area looked like it had been mass bombed. The quake was relatively shallow, approx 16 kms below the surface. It lasted 2.5 minutes and produced 150 or so after shocks in the following 12 hours.
The building depicted here was designed by Louis Hay in the Chicago School style of architecture. Incorporating Art Nouveau and Ard Deco features, it has an impressive brass banister , ornate lamps and a marble foyer.

As a result of the devastation caused by this event, the whole city was rebuilt in the Art Deco and Spanish Mission styles. Not many cities get to rebuild entirely and therefore in one or two styles, making Napier quite unique.