November 13, Napier NZ

November 13, Napier NZ

Napier is a popular tourist city and has one of the most photographed tourist attractions in the country, a statue on Marine Parade called Pania of the Reef. This attraction is regarded in the same way by the locals as the Little Mermaid statue is regarded in Copenhagen. The area attracts thousands of tourists every February for the Art Deco event celebrating Napier’s Art Deco heritage and history.

One of Napier’s most significant events occurred on February 3, 1931 when the city was leveled by an earthquake, killing 258 people. The town was destroyed and rebuilt in the popular Art Deco style of the time. The Art Deco building have been recognized as architecturally unique, and since the 1990s have been protected and restored. Napier and South Beach Miami are considered the two best preserved Art Deco towns in the world and Napier has been nominated as a World Heritage Site.

We arrived in Napier at 7am, and were scheduled to leave at 2pm. Because of the short time frame we had signed onto a private tour set up by one of our fellow cruise critic members. We toured the city center first thing which was really nice as there wasn’t much traffic yet, so we got great views of the various buildings. You really felt like you were transported back to the 1930s looking at them. You can see the obvious effort that has gone into restoring these magnificent buildings.

From the downtown area we toured through the suburbs of Hastings and Havelock then went up to the top of Te Mata Peak, the highest point of the area. We had a bright sunny and clear day and could see for miles in all directions. Then it was off to one of Hawks Bay local wineries for a tasting. New Zealand wines are considered some of the best in the world, and Hawks Bay has some of the best.

As our time was running out, we headed back toward the port and saw a couple of other buildings that we hadn’t seen before, then it was back onboard for our sail away to the port of Tauranga.