Susan and I had the opportunity to visit Napier in the Hawke’s Bay wine growing region located on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. Napier is a small coastal port city that was devastated by a severe earthquake in 1931. Much of the town was destroyed and rebuilt in the then-current Art Deco architectural style. Today the Art Deco Trust watches over the architectural renovation of over 140 building originating from the 1930s reconstruction.
While we were unfortunately there only one night, we spent the afternoon and the early morning hours walking the downtown streets appreciating the architecture of the beautiful restored hotels, shops and bank buildings. A lovely park runs the length of the town along the ocean and is the site of gardens, memorials and other period correct civic structures.
Last weekend was the annual Art Deco celebration where people from all over New Zealand gather in 1930’s costume to enjoy picnics, outdoor concerts and dancing in the streets in Great Gatsby style. An event we hope to attend someday soon.
All images were taken with Nikon D750 w/ Nikon AF 28-105mm f1:3.5-4 iin RAW format processed in Adobe Lightroom 5.7.