Napier in a New Light

We only spent one afternoon in Napier which is possibly enough for tourists visiting in Autumn as the main thing we wanted to do was to walk around and admire the fascinating Art Deco buildings - this is easily possible in an afternoon. There's also a long stretch of stony beach which is great for a looong walk but we were warned about going for a swim due to the strong currents.

Even our hostel, The Criterion, was completely Art Deco - it reminded me a lot of Tameside Theatre inside actually, which is over 100 years old so couldn't be art deco, I suppose.

A huge earthquake in 1931 devastated the town and as a result, the re-building in the 30s was all done in the style of the day which happened to be Art Deco. Tourists flock here every February to enjoy the huge Art Deco weekend festival. It was really interesting to see photos taken immediately after the earthquake, showing the destruction and eventually how the town was rebuilt. It was fitting to see photos of this reconstruction after the Haitian, Chilean and Chinese earthquakes that have struck within a matter of weeks. Chris especially loved walking around and taking photos - he loves the art deco style and this town really is something special. In the meantime, I gained an education in everything Art Deco, of which I was almost completely ignorant beforehand.

We were eager to sample some of the regions famously delicious wine - wine from the Hawke's Bay region is very popular back home. Chris' friend Jamie from Paris is from Napier and had him all excited about wine from Hawke's Bay. Our decision had been to rent bikes from our hostel but alas, this was not to be - the bikes were out of order. Just our luck... we hardly had much time left in the day. Now we had to go on a search around town for bikes before embarking on what looked like a rather massive bike ride. The tourist office wasn't much help, saying it was too late to rent bikes from them or indeed anyone else. Hmmmph. On our grumpy walk back to the hostel, feeling defeated, we bumped into our coach driver who, with his Liverpudlian girlfriend Sophie, was about to take the Magic bus for a refuel. He admitted how close it was to the vineyards we wanted to visit and kindly told us he would take us there on his way! Score!

And so it was that Chris and I arrived at both Mission winery and Old Church road vineyard. We all four hopped off the huge coach (Sophie having decided to join us for the tastings too, with Nigel as our designated bus driver!) and rocked up to the tasting rooms of these very fancy wineries. We had to feel for the owners who must have thought it was their lucky day with a coach-load of people coming to buy wine; the only people who jumped off were a couple of flashpackers and the driver!

What a great afternoon! Art Deco, wine and new friends!