New Year, New Adventure: Part 10 of 13
For reference, the day is February 6, 2026 when I’m putting together this installment of the vacation blog. It is snowing at a rate of an inch an hour. That is on top of the twelve inches of snow from last week. Pondering that…now let’s get back to a beautiful day in the southern hemisphere!
After a few days of cloudy skies and rain, it was a welcome change to see blue above us as the ship entered Hawke Bay and the port of Napier. It turned out to be one of the nicest days on our entire trip. Perfect temperature, plenty of sunshine, and a memorable town to wander.
Looking like a piece of southern Florida, The War Memorial Park sure looked like a nice place to kick back and enjoy an ideal day in New Zealand.
Napier is a lovely bay and beach community with about 125,000 in the city and surrounding region. It is known for its sunny and mild climate. The port handles the export of lumber, produce, frozen meat and wool for the southeast portion of the North Island. The Maori settled the area in the 12th century and European traders, missionaries and whalers showed up in the early part of the 19th century. The Crown (Queen Victoria) purchased the land from the Maori in 1851 and set up a governor. The area was sleepy and slow growing well into the 20th century. That all changed on February 3, 1931 when an earthquake leveled the town, starting fires that burned most of the remaining structures, and killing 256 people.
When touring the town the architecture clearly gives away which buildings pre-date the 1931 quake. This row of early 1900s homes facing the beach are known as the Six Sisters.
Not far from the Six Sisters, 95 years ago, the commercial center of town was in ruins. The members of the Napier Council charged with rebuilding the community quickly put together a unified plan of architecture, based on current style, cost of building materials, and resistance to calamities such as quakes and fire. The result was an area built up in the Art Deco style. Since the 1960s, Napier has truly embraced it’s accidental-on-purpose style, and become the preeminent Art Deco community.
The details of the buildings are spectacular. Brass rails, hard wood angular window and door framing, and the must-have the moulding and colors.
What would an Art Deco town be without and Art Deco theater?
In an acknowledgement of the value of Art Deco to Napier, and Napier to Art Deco, this 2010 statue captures the essence of the Art Deco modern woman.
Looking southeast towards the new harbor across Hawke Bay, a reclamation project is putting new sand on the beaches. Outside of the central business district, the Art Deco gives way to old and new apartments and single family dwellings. Many of the neighborhoods are built on land lifted from the marshes by the 1931 quake. Some parts of the land rose by as much as two meters.
In the old harbor, it was nice to see the local sailing club and kids preparing to go out in their 420 class boats. There is no shortage of sailing clubs in New Zealand.
Our final stop for the day happened right at the bottom of the gangway. The local car club brought out a dozen vintage cars for our amusement and admiration. These guys do a really nice job maintaining the nearly century old cars.