you can plan a pretty picnic but you can't predict the weather

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Napier’s Masonic Hotel

Thursday, 17 May 2007 : Filed under: Hawkes Bay E-Mail This Article

Art Deco Hell
Napier is art deco heaven/hell dending on your perpsective – Napier, New Zealand

6 Comments »

Comment by josh — May 17, 2007 @ 10:20 am

After making it out of the park, we drove another 100km south to the ocean town of Napier, situated on Hawke’s Bay. The entire town of Napier was destroyed in an earthquake in the early thirties, and was rebuilt entirely in art deco style. Today it is the “Art Deco City” with everything (even manhole covers and McDonalds) being over the top deco. The girls seem to love it.

Above is the Masonic Hotel, which is where we are staying. If you follow the road straight, and cross over that other road in the picture, you get to a beautiful black sand beach. We have a garden tarrace connected to our room that overlooks the ocean. It is great for sipping coffee and drinking local wine. Hawke’s Bay is one of the top wine regions in the country, but I will disclose those details tomorrow.

Comment by josh — May 17, 2007 @ 10:21 am

Art Deco Madness
More deco. These buildings are not the exception. They are the norm for the entire city.

Now it’s time for a morning stroll on the beach :-)

Comment by dad — May 18, 2007 @ 1:30 am

Sounds great! I want to see a picture of the beach. And the manhole covers. And does it make you nervous being in a town that was destroyed by an earthquake?

Comment by josh — May 18, 2007 @ 6:42 pm

Sorry I didn’t get a picture of the manhole covers. But here is a picture of the beach outside the city. This is pretty much what it looked like in the city as well. You can see Napier in the distance (the houses on the hill towards the left of the photo on the ocean are near downtown).

Hawkes Bay

Comment by dad — May 20, 2007 @ 12:20 pm

Nice beach! I’m guessing it was still pretty warm while you were there? But pretty deserted, huh? My impression is that it’s all kind of rural and no crowds of people anywhere you’ve been on most of this trip? weird to think of you entering autumn.

Comment by josh — May 20, 2007 @ 1:41 pm

The weather was sunny and got warm in the early afternoon, but definately too cold to be swimming. I went for an early morning swim one day, but could only stand it for about one minute.

This beach was outside of the city. For the most part, yes everything is rural without many people at all. There are cities though, ranging in size with all your basic stuff and whatnot.

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