The Art Deco Tour

Napier very much feels as if it should be a movie set. There are amazing architectural details throughout. The tour was very informative, I highly recommend it. It started with a short video about the earthquake, during which I learned something new - there used to be an inner harbor/lagoon around the hill just on the other side of Napier - it is now farmland, because the earthquake raised the land here by two meters (roughly 6'7", or in yet another measurement scale, the same height as my brother). Scary stuff.

The tour guide was great, very knowledgeable and funny. The tour started out at the bandshell on the parade. The art deco style has a great deal of Egyptian influence, but it also borrows from Greek architecture, as evidenced by this pillar (with the band shell behind it).

At one point, the open area in front of the stage was used as an ice skating rink.

This is one of the most photographed buildings in Napier.

While most of the buildings stick with traditional art deco style motifs, there is one building that incorporates Māori designs.

It was such a fabulous tour, I had a lot of fun taking pictures.

The sun is quite harsh here, and there are awnings over the sidewalks all around town. Most of the awnings have tintype panels.

There's a lot of detail on the buildings, but there is very little that sticks out - having just experienced a catastrophic earthquake, no one was keen to build things that might fall on an unsuspecting passerby in case of another tragedy.

An enterprising business person built the multi-story eyesore in the background there in 80s. Apparently, they've struggled to keep it tenanted ever since because it is so glaringly out of place.

This building is lovely, but also notable because it houses the Wine Centre where I had gone for a tasting the day before.

The little details everywhere were just stunning.

The tour ended in the Masonic Hotel, which has been renovated and returned to its former glory over the last few years.

Later that evening, after a fabulous meal at the restaurant in the hotel, I walked over to the Tom Parker Fountain, which had been mentioned during the tour. It was gifted to the city in 1936, and puts on a water and light show every night.

I'm still not used to Christmas in summer, but the lights were lovely.

This beautiful lady is Pania, the Napier mermaid. Legend has it that during the day she lived in the sea, but at night she would swim up the stream so she could rest in the flax bushes. It was here that she met Karitoki, the son of a Māori chief. The two fell in love and were married, but as a creature of the sea she had to return there every morning after spending the night with her husband. Her husband didn't want to share her with the ocean, so he consulted an elder to ask how he could make her stay on land. The elder said that if Pania consumed cooked food, she would not be allowed to return to the sea. At night, Karitoki placed a piece of cooked food in Pania's mouth, but a ruru (a native owl) called out in warning, and Pania fled back to the sea, never to return.