In between my Auckland (see photos here) and Wellington (see photos here) visits I spent a day exploring Napier, the art deco capital of New Zealand. Much of the city was destroyed by an earthquake in the early 1930s and rebuilding occurred during the time period when art deco was the prevailing architectural style. Today Napier is a popular place to visit for art deco enthusiasts like myself. I arrived late on January 1st (after my bus from Auckland to Napier broke down for several hours along the way) and spent January 2nd out & about all day exploring the area. Unfortunately, the day started off with impacts from the immense bush fires in Australia, with the smoke traveling across the Tasman Sea. It mostly impacted the South Island, but the North Island was on the fringe, resulting in the tinted skies in the first half of my photos. Fortunately, it passed by mid-afternoon, with blue skies and sunshine eventually appearing. I enjoyed my time in Napier and my only regret is that I didn’t have an extra day to spend visiting nearby Hawke’s Bay vineyards/wineries.
First order of business on Thursday morning was stopping by a café for a flat white
Then I spent the next 1-2 hours wandering around downtown Napier checking out the architecture
At the opposite end of downtown from the oceanfront is Clive Square, which had some nice landscaping
Back along the oceanfront are the Sunken Gardens
Now making my way back through downtown to head up the hillside of Bluff Hill
Entering Tiffen Park on the side of Bluff Hill to reach the top
Once atop the hill I headed through a residential neighborhood toward the Botanical Gardens
Next to the Botanical Gardens is this lovely cemetery
Heading into the Napier Botanical Gardens
Heading back down the hill from the Napier Botanical Gardens
My Airbnb overlooking the ocean and just a few blocks from the downtown area
The view from my Airbnb
After a little break back at my Airbnb, I headed back out mid-afternoon when the skies began to clear up and some blue skies finally appeared
Lovely set, have to hit NZ some time. That war memorial is a copy of the one in London, made stark by how small it is for such a major memorial. It's meant to be the raised shape of a single coffin, which forms an empty plinth - in effect the lack of statuary is saying nothing can be glorified about it. It's just very sad.
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