Napier
Napier is known for its nice climate, Art Deco, family and tourist friendly atmosphere. Just a few minutes’ drive from our inland neighbour Hastings, it’s a friendly gateway to other great scenic stretches of coastline to the north and south and the perfect place to park up and explore.
Our vineyards are internationally renowned and we have many cycleways and walkways for you to try out, not to mention top facilities not found anywhere else in New Zealand, such as the National Aquarium of New Zealand.
Our city’s bustling café and restaurant culture, boutique retail experiences and night means you won’t run out of things to see and do in a hurry.
The Hawke’s Bay earthquake on February 3 1931 changed the landscape of Napier and many families’ lives forever.
But from out of the devastation rose a new city whose architectural style would reverberate down the years.
Art Deco has helped put Napier on the international tourist map, particularly since local enthusiasts founded the internationally recognised Art Deco Weekend celebrating the era. The ‘weekend’ every February now stretches out to five days and attracts more than 30,000 people each year, and has a smaller scale sister event every July.
The town itself was established in the 1850s, although Maori, particularly Ngati Kahungunu, had been settled here for a long time before. Before the HB earthquake lifted up much of Ahuriri lagoon and created new land, townsfolk had to choose to live either on or at the fringe of Scinde Island (known as Bluff Hill today), or out in Taradale.
Napier City Council | Ph: 06-835 7579 | 215 Hastings Street, Napier South - www.napier.govt.nz
Did you know Napier has a time capsule?
The Napier City Council Civic Chambers is home to a time capsule not due for opening until 2074.
Made in 1974 by the then Mayor of Napier and former engineer, David Prebensen, the time capsule holds many items donated by the community, retailers and businesses of the time.
Families of babies born in the two weeks leading up to the capsule being sealed were asked to fill in a form about their children. The form included space for the babies’ footprints.
Other items include a child’s plastic ride-on trike, which were new at the time, a packet of welding rods, the town clerk’s suit, and a dress donated by the Mayoress.
The last thing to go inside the casing, on top of the canisters and under the top dome, was a 16mm film by the late amateur film-maker Ron Sang. The film, which was never viewed in public before it was added to the time capsule, was an edited account of the lead up to, the filling of and the official function for the sealing of the time capsule.
Mr Prebensen believes there will be enough in the capsule to hold a substantial exhibition when it’s opened.
“It’s the ordinary stuff that people used every day that will be the most interesting I think, because it’s not the sort of stuff people would keep for 100 years and back then most of it was brand new,” said Mr Prebensen.