Napier - the Art Deco City

For our next destination, it wasn't about nature, but about visiting a remarkable city, namely the town of Napier on the east coast of the North Island.

Napier was designed in the popular Art Deco style in the early 1930s. The reason for this cohesive city planning was nature - a severe earthquake and subsequent fire completely destroyed the city of Napier in February 1931. This provided the opportunity to completely rebuild the city without consideration for existing structures.

And it must be said, it succeeded. The city is characterized by many beautiful Art Deco buildings that look very different despite their unified style. The facades are designed in colorful pastel tones, often with white accents, and are slightly decorated or roundly built, without appearing kitschy or exaggerated. And the residents keep their city in great shape, you don't see any houses in need of renovation, on the contrary, most of them look freshly painted.

The pleasant atmosphere of the city is not only created by the buildings, but also by its location directly on the open sea with a beautifully designed beach promenade. So you can walk several hundred meters "over the sea" on a long jetty and enjoy the view of the sea, beach, and city. And throughout the city, you will find more beautiful green spaces and palm-lined streets. One may say that the cities in New Zealand are without charm. While that may be true for many, Napier is absolutely charming.

So we enjoyed 3 days in this town, visited the aquarium and Possum-World, which is actually just a shop. Both are worth seeing, but not a reason to come here on their own.

A week after our visit, the Art Deco Festival took place in Napier. This festival attracts visitors from all over New Zealand. Initially, we didn't want to be there because it seemed too crowded and we didn't have the appropriate clothing. But after seeing the advertising everywhere and realizing that not everything takes place indoors and with a dress code, and since we still had plenty of time, we decided to spend the next weekend in Napier as well. Fortunately, there was still room for our tent at the campsite. Everything else had been fully booked for weeks!

The days in between from Tuesday to Thursday, we spent at Waipatiki Beach, just 50 km north of Napier, to hang out at the beach for a few days. We succeeded for 2 days, but on Thursday it started to rain, so we fled and arrived in Napier a day earlier. We took down and set up our tent in the rain, but it was a good decision. While it only rained lightly on Thursday, it poured down on Friday, and we never would have been able to set up our tent dry.

We were now looking forward to the festival, which I will dedicate a separate chapter to on this blog.