Monday, March 18 - Napier, Art Deco capital of NZ

     In 1931, the worst natural disaster to ever hit NZ occurred when an earthquake destroyed the coastal city of Napier and much of the surrounding area.  256 people died, 70 more than in the more recent Christchurch earthquake with a much larger population.  When the town was rebuilt, most of the downtown area adopted the then popular Art Deco style.  And now, the city takes advantage of that heritage to boost city pride and tourism.   It is a very attractive town, and while the AD style doesn't hit you over the head, it is fun to walk around and spot examples of it.

The whole city was raised nearly six feet by the earthquake, pushing the
coastline out far enough to develop the foreshore into a kilometer long park.

The bandstand at the far end has concerts on the green

This is Pania of the Reef, and she's always on the lookout for a handsome
man.  She'll continue looking.

The pedestrian street in the middle of town.

The old Masonic Hotel was destroyed by the earthquake and ensuing fire.
This version sits in the same place but replaces Victorian style with Art Deco.
The earthquake caused all of NZ to reexamine building codes, an ongoing
process that is seeing many old brick and block buildings being reinforced
or replaced.  Tragically for Christchurch, over half of the deaths were in
 the relatively new (1986) CTV building.   155 people lost there lives there.  An
inquest discovered that the main design engineer had faked his qualifications.

Perhaps the finest example of AD architecture, the old National Tobacco
Co. building.  Furniture is sold there now.

AD is carried over to the interiors of some of the
buildings

After looking around the city we drove up to Napier to watch the activity
in the port.  Here, sand is delivered to a line of waiting trucks.

The never ending supply of NZ timber awaits loading on this ship.