Fun things to do in Napier

3 more images

Best thing to do is to get a brochure, either at the office of the Visitor Information Centre (Marine Parade) or The Art Deco Shop (Tennyson Street). So it is easy to walk along the many art deco buildings in the city centre. When we did this unguided tour there were 89 buildings mentioned in the text of the brochure.
Some of the buildings are open for public and it is easy to take a look inside.
The walk is about 1 ½ km long.

There are also daily guided walks through this charming town (see website).

Napier City is the site of the finest examples of authentic Art Deco in the world. When the city was rebuilt after the devastating 1931 Earthquake, the main business area and its key buildings were designed on a common theme - 1930s Art Deco.
Although many of the buildings in Los Angeles were also designed with Art Deco principles, Napier City has faithfully retained the 1920s and 30s Art Deco character and style in its Central Shopping Area through the years.
Its Museum and Art Gallery have a permanent exhibition of Art Deco objet d'art. The most famous Art Deco building in Napier is the Rothmans of Pall Mall building, 1932-33, designed by J. A. Louis Hay, who was inspired by the work of the famous Chicago architect, Louis Sullivan.
Over recent years Napier has celebrated each year with the Art Deco Weekend. Billed as a "not too serious" celebration the Art Deco Weekend includes vintage cars, historic aircraft, wine glass wanders, the Gatsby Family Picnic, and much more.
The architecture and applied arts of the Art Deco period reveal a varied mix. However, most share the hallmarks of geometry and simplicity, often combined with vibrant colors and simple shapes that celebrate the rise of commerce and technology. The world of Art Deco represents a "graciousness of form" from a simpler time.

2 more images

This beautiful building, perhaps the most iconic art deco building in the world, is situated a little bit outside the centre of Napier. More or less hidden behind Bluff Hill in a neighbourhood called Ahuriri, close to the port.

It was the office building of The national Tobacco Company, now British American Tobacco.
We were able to take a look in the hall inside the building. If still possible watch carefully for the art deco details.

The building has been designed by J.A. Louis Hay in the year of 1933, two years after the devastating earth quake.

Napier has an attractive shopping centre with lots of nice shops and some shopping arcades.

‘Down town’ is must more pleasant than in many other cities in New Zealand. They succeeded in creating a more or less pedestrian area with lots of side walk café’s.
It is just fun to browse around. Off course one of the highlights when shopping and interested in art deco is the Art Deco Shop.

The main shopping streets are: Emerson Street, Hastings Street and Dalton Street.

Hastings, though a Spanish Mission style city as well as Art Deco, is much less faithful than Napier to any one style and there are several buildings we noticed in just the 3 streets we explored which were neither style, quite modern, which only made them stand out more oddly amongst their more elegant neighbours.

Hastings as a whole though I found rather delightful and charming, right from the first glimpses we had as we drove in. The tops of all the 1st floor shop verandahs of the 2 storey buildings in the CBD's main central few streets (and possibly others we didn't see) were lined with flower baskets and window boxes, mainly with either pink or purple petunias. It was a riot of colour which brightened a rather dull grey day quite considerably.

ART DECO, originated in Europe from 1920 - 1940, a form that expressed all the vigor and optimism of the roaring twenties, and the idealism and escapism of the grim thirties.

When walking around we found many of the different themes represented in the way the buildings were built.
To get an idea some of them are.......

Sunbursts and fountains - representing the dawn of a new modern age.
The Skyscraper shape - symbolic of the 20th century.
Symbols of speed, power and flight - the exiting new developments in transport and communications.
Geometric shapes - representing the machine and technology which it was thought would solve all our problems.
The new woman - revelling in her recently won social freedoms.
Breaking the rules - cacophonous jazz, short skirts and hair, shocking dances.
Ancient cultures - for oddly enough, there was a fascination with the civilizations of Egypt and central America. Self-Guided Walks

There are guided walking tours which would give you a lot more information, we just walked around Napier with the ART DECO WALK booklet which we bought from the tourist information centre for $5. The booklets are for sale at other places in Napier.

The walk is 1.5 kilometres long and takes about 1.5hours and it really is quite interesting.
The town seems very proud of its buildings, they were all nicely painted and well looked after, a credit to Napier!

Te Reinga Falls were raging because of recent rain! A few minutes walk from the carpark and picnic area takes you to the lookout to view the spectacular 35 metre falls.

Just above the bridge the Hangaroa and Ruakituri Rivers combine to form the Wairoa River.

Continuing on our scenic drive, a big surprise was seeing the extremely high Mohaka River Viaduct.
This is the highest railway viaduct in Australasia, standing 95m above the Mohaka river.

Construction began in 1930, but was not completed until 1937. At the time of its construction the viaduct was the fourth highest in the world and its completion was the final link in the Napier – Wairoa rail line which had commenced at Napier in 1912.

The trestle-constructed Mohaka Viaduct, crosses the Mohaka River close to the small settlement of Raupunga.