Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Art Deco in Napier

After leaving Wellington, I headed straight up the east coast to the Hawkes Bay area, a place called Napier. In 1931 Napier was hit with a seriously large earthquake which pretty much destroted everything that made up the town. It was all rebuilt in a couple of years and the majority of the new buildings were designed in the fashionable style at the time; Art Deco.
Pania on the reef.

As I was leisurely walking the waterfront I happened upon a statue of Maori legend called Pania. A maori gentlemen, called Phillip, approached me and explained who she was. It turned out that this fella (the guy, not the statue) was a guide practicing to be local history guide for the area, so he took me under his wing and spent the afternoon walking around Napier explaining to me the sights and sounds, which was nice. My own personal tour!

Some of the many Art Deco architecture. A lot of it was spoilt with shops changing the face of the ground floor. Second story was were to look.

Napier was a pleasent place, basically a mixture of Miami (cos of the colourful Art Deco buildings everywhere) crossed with an British seaside town, with a dash of Aotearoa thrown in.

Miami? No! Napier.

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