Napier - The Art Deco capital of the World!

I seem to have a great big gap at the end of the last blog! What it should say is that we are now in Napier - Art Deco Capital of the World and here is Gordon at the front of our hotel - and we are in good company. The Duke of Gloucester (later to be George VI) stayed there too!!

As most of the photos in this blog are architecturally based we thought we would start with one (actually the only one!) of us. Here we are in a fantastic pink girlie shop by the port having one of the best cream teas ever. The cream and scones came with fresh rose buds and you got to choose your own cup, saucer and plate. Fantastic....and the scones were nearly as good as my mum's!

We did a bus tour of the wider area and a walking tour of the town centre and spent most of our time there staring into the sky and going "ooohh" or "look" or words to that effect! Much of the town was rebuilt in the Deco style from 1931 after a violent earthquake in February of that year knocked most of the buildings along the fault line down. Some very sad stories - some very amusing ones; but impressive to see how everyone helped each other including the navy whose sailors on the ship in port dropped everything to assist.

Though it is mainly the city centre that had to be rebuilt many private houses also followed the style, and here are 2 of the best.

These 3 photos are from one of the most amazing buildings where the deco style was mixed in with some Art Nouveux (is that spelt right?). Fantastic as I am a fan of both.

Many buildings had intricate detail which was made even more impressive by the way they had been carefully painted. Thank goodness we bought a book with lots of pictures in as well.

And here are some of the shops and businesses in the town centre.

Just to prove that it is not all Deco, many of the houses in the outskirts built in Edwardian wood survived the quake....and many more have been built in a much more modern style. Some good, some bad, but we liked this one.


In the evening there were lights along the seafront and the high light was the Tom Parker Fountain that changed colours and spray patterns as you watched. The tour guides asked the UK visitors if we recognised the fountain....it is a copy of the one in Bournemouth!! Typical; and we bet that one doesn't even work (if it is still there that is!)



After Napier we are heading to Lake Taupo where the Flying Foxes plan to see some volcanic scenery! See you then!