Art Deco Heaven

Leaving Gisborne, there followed a long day of driving, a long winding road, thru hills and dales and across some gorges to Napier. Hawkes Bay is a beautiful, sweeping bay, with Napier nestled in it.

The Art Deco in Napier is really worth seeing, so we took a walking tour, with a volunteer guide, and spent a nice morning admiring the buildings there. After the devastating earthquake on 1931, the town was rebuilt in the style of the times, Art Deco. It was only in the 1980's that the town's people rallied and made moves to preserve the style from the ravages of developers. It was little too late for a few buildings, but Art Deco in the CBD area is mostly intact and is now a major contributor to Napier's prosperity. It now attracts crowds of visitors, with a big jazz festival, in the summer each year. The first photo shows a detail of the pavillion on Hawke Bay, and the second is the old fire station, damaged by the earthquake, restored in Art Deco style, and now the Art Deco centre of Napier.

Whilst in Napier, we met up and had coffee at Ujazi with a local author who is researching a book on a Napier actress from the 1920's who happened to marry a distant relative of Mike's. The author had rung us a month or two ago having found our family name in the Sydney phonebook. What a coincidence that we were going to be in his hometown so soon after the telephone call!