Villa Vista Bed and Breakfast

Columns on Marine Parade/grassy foreshore

by Kate-Me

I really loved these almost Roman style columns on Napier's waterfront. The architecture takes little bits and pieces from so many cultures and civilizations, and puts most of it together as Art Deco. It's brilliant.
I could dream I was in Rome here...

Hastings: nice side trip

by vtveen

Hastings also was also hit by the earth quake of 1931. But the city doesn’t count as much art deco buildings as Napier. There are some nice cornices along the main shopping street. So we 'always' had to look upwards to discover these art deco elements.

Perhaps a more outstanding feature in Hastings is the railway, which divides the main street in two parts without having level-crossing gates or lights !!

Hastings has some nice shops: all together a pleasant half day trip from Napier.

Church Road Cellar Door and Resturant

by dimanche

this is a winery located in Hawke's Bay. it was a pretty cool place the people showed us how they made wine stored it in cellars and huge barrels. at the end of the day we got to taste the different wines......i didn't really like the dinner wine......it was a tad too sweet! ugh!

Walking the walk

by iandsmith

From the tourist information centre you can procure a book that guides you around the significant architecture.
Highlights of the walk include St John's Cathedral, with 13 contemporary stained glass windows and a specially designed Maori chapel. The first cathedral was built on the site in 1886 and was destroyed when the 1931 earthquake hit while communion was being served — with the loss of only one life. A "temporary" cathedral was used for 25 years before the current one was completed in the 1960s. It incorporates some of the features of the original cathedral and you can take a free guided tour between 10am and 2pm during holiday periods.
Other fine examples of art deco — there are more than 90 on the map — include the Municipal Theatre, with its Egyptian influence, the Hotel Central on Emerson Street (now home to a strip club and massage parlour) and the oddly-shaped Kidson's Building opposite it.
Pania of the Reef, Napier Duck inside the ASB Bank on Emerson Street, and look up to see the wonderful red, white and black Maori motifs on the ceiling. This is renowned as New Zealand's finest example of Maori carving and kowhaiwhai (rafter) patterns on a European-style building and is one of four Napier buildings with Maori motifs.

ART DECO CAPITOL OF NZ (some say the world)

by stevemt

"The buildings"

Far from the world's great population centres and from the European and American cities where 20th Century design evolved lies a small city that is unique. Napier, New Zealand, was rebuilt in the early 1930s following a massive Richter 7.8 Earthquake. Subsequent fires destroyed most of its commercial heart. By the end of the decade, Napier was the newest city on the globe.

Nowhere else can you see such a variety of buildings in the styles of the 1930s - Stripped Classical, Spanish Mission, and above all Art Deco, the style of the 20th Century - in such a concentrated area. And Napier's Art Deco is unique, with Maori motifs and the buildings of Louis Hay, admirer of the great Frank Lloyd Wright.

Enhanced by palms and the angular Norfolk Island pines which are its trademark, and bounded by fertile fruit and grape growing plains, dramatic hills and the shores of the South Pacific, beautiful Napier is the centre of the Hawke's Bay region. In Napier, you can enjoy the legacy of its brave rebuilding and savour the spirit of the optimistic Art Deco era.

The world Ard Deco yearly confrence is often held in Napier

"Building styles"

Every building is unique, some colourful some not so colourful, but all very individual.

"The foreshore"

The foreshore of Napier is always alive, in summer wiyth people on the beach and swimming, but also at most other times with markets etc.

The soundshell is used for free public concerts