Monday - 26th December - Boxing Day - Napier, The Art Deco City

 

This was one of my favourite days of this journey, with lots of lovely photos and info to share.

(I'll let you into a little secret, My Dear Readers, we are back at home, we have collected the doggies and I am writing this from my favourite desk in my craft room. It just got too painfully slow to upload photos on the ship so I gave it up, even though it cost hundreds of dollars on the ship for the premium satellite  internet. Gosh, they get you for $ every chance they can.

Alas, Graham is now really sick, he's tested negative to covid, but has a really nasty cold. In fact he is sicker than he was when he really had covid. Just don't give your germs to me,  thank you very much. 

I just wish he would listen to me when I try to give him my nurses advice).

But moving on, back to the beautiful city of Napier.

Above:- This is the T&G building 1936.

Napier is a famous Art Deco City and today we decided to do a self guided walk.

I'm afraid the brochure got a bit mangled in my suitcase, but I've sensibly sticky taped it back together.

Yes, the brochure cost us $10.00 NZ. We've never had to pay for a self guided walk before anywhere in the world, but the times they are a changing. 

We felt that this one was good value for money, and it was. (Still using it for facts for this post).

So to understand why this is an Art Deco City our first stop was the museum.

At 10.47am on February 3rd 1931, an earthquake of the magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale devastated central Napier and caused widespread damage in Hastings and the wider region.

 

In Napier's business area, fires broke out that destroyed most of those buildings that survived the tremors. By the following day all but a few of them had been destroyed. 

 

157 Napier people had died, 261 in the region. 

 

By early 1933, in the remarkably short time of two years, the town had been rebuilt, making it the worlds newest and most modern city at the time.

 

 

Here are some examples of Art Deco design, by Clarice Cliff and some Vaseline glassware.

Above:- This is the former Central Fire Station.

Above:- The flamboyant Daily Telegraph building.

bbb

Above- The ceiling of the ASB bank, it has NZ's finest Maori ceiling carvings.

Above:- Spanish Mission style with Barley twist columns on this hotel.

Above:- Even the street signs are in art deco font.

They have special traffic light crossings to make sure the doggies know when its safe to cross with their owner, very thoughtful of them... (Its really hard to get the timing right to take these pics).

Then on to the Colonnade and Plaza, below, which commemorates the rebuilding of Napier.

 

Here we are reflected in the globe. I do like a mirror photo...

Below is the Tom Parker Fountain. I believe it is even more spectacular when lit up at night.

But its rather nice today with the two blues!

Pania

According to Maori legend, Pania was a creature of the sea who strayed ashore each night and fell in love with the young chief. 

Sounds a bit like a Little Mermaid-ish tale to me.

 

In 1982 the Pania statue was shot in the head. 

Really, why would you do that! They must have been drunk...

 

The damage was later repaired, then in 2005 the statue was stolen. Rescued a month later, it was returned to it rock plinth, with a crowd of over 1000 people to welcome her back. 

Then we went for a wander on the very pretty pier.

Its a black pebble beach! 

I sneaked a tiny pebble home, its in the china cabinet. 

(I hope its not like Uluru where you have curse on you if you steal their stones. In Napier, it may mean I have to go back to return it, which will be fine by me).

Phew, and then back to the ship.

But then,,, Graham found a old bloke with an old car with whom he could strike up a chat. 

They have classic car tours here.

More pine, it smells like pine, and I guess that's why the water in this port is also pine coloured.

There are 22 people isolating with covid onboard. Including those in the next door cabin.

However, Oo,Oh,Ohh, its our LOTR adventure tomorrow. 

We paid for it years ago and now we are finally going.. YAY.