Monday 7th January – the drive to Napier

View of Hawke's Bay from the viewpoint on Bluff Hill, Napier

The pavilion on the seafront

To make the most of Simon’s time off work, I was keen for us to explore some more new NZ locations.  Napier had been recommended by numerous people, especially my brother who, as an architect, has fond memories of the art-deco buildings throughout the town. The Napier earthquake occurred on 3rd February 1931 and killed 256 people. It remains New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster. Almost all of the main buildings in Napier were levelled and, Art-deco being very much in-fashion at that time, this is why the town is home to some of the best Art-deco architecture in the world.


We found our way to the tourist information centre on the seafront where we bought a self-guiding map of all of the main art-deco hotspots around the town.  We wandered the streets on foot, taking photographs.  

A statue on the main pedestrian shopping street

The Masonic hotel on the seafront

Photographs showing the extent of the damage caused by the 1931 Earthquake

Deciding on where to camp that night came down to our plans for tomorrow. 

Despite me saying that we had seen gannets on farewell spit only days before, so I’d had my ‘fix’ lately, Simon had agreed to yet another gannet outing! South of Napier, there is a large gannet colony at Kidnapper’s cove and a convenient camp site nearby. 

Off we went and set up the tent again.