After breakfast with Joy we walked downtown to the centre of Napier. Napier was almost completely destroyed in February 1931 when it was hit by an earthquake, followed by a massive fire. The town was rebuilt in two years, and as so much of it was rebuilt at the same time, in roughly the same style, it is now a microcosm of Art Deco style architecture (plus influences from Spanish Mission and others).
First stop was the Art Deco shop where we managed to book onto a tour which was starting in about 5 minutes. First part was a film showing the town before, during and after the earthquake and fire. Then we had a guided walk around the main sections of the centre, ably led by Charlotte. This was a bronze of Sarah, the girl who led the first parade commemorating the earthquake one year on.
The Art Deco style is all quite subtle decoration, with lots of ziggurats and sun symbols. Until the 80s the buildings tended to be all painted the same colour, but as people began to realise how unique their town was (and how good a tourist magnet) people began to use pastel colours, and picked out the decoration in other tones.
A by product of the Christchurch earthquake in 2011 is stricter building regulations, and this is now putting some of these older buildings at risk. To bring them up to current standards is very expensive, but without these improvements they cannot be insured, and so companies will not use them.
Much of the town's population have joined into the spirit of the Art Deco movement. There is a big parade every February where everyone dresses up, there is a fabulous shop selling 1930s fashions, and there are several people offering vintage car tours round town. This car was owned by a gentleman who just drives round town every day, dressed in a blazer and straw boater.
Several of the wooden houses in the town survived the earthquake, but were then destroyed in the fire. This row of lovely houses was saved by being just outside the main centre.
This building, originally the courthouse and now the DOC information centre, survived both quake and fire, though it had previously been damaged by a large wave. It used to be right on the sea front, and after the wave damage a large, 3m high, sea wall was built to protect the main parade. The quake pushed the land area up by around 2m in the whole area and drained the adjacent lagoon, opening huge new areas for industry and agriculture. During the clear up of the town all the debris was dumped on the seaward side of the wall, which is now only 80cm high and well away from the sea. A lovely set of gardens was created along the front on top of the debris, and the beach, of black sand, now slopes steeply down to the sea.
After our tour we wandered around the town for a while longer, had a delicious lunch and ice cream then set off to walk to the old harbour area. It didn't take us long to decide that it was too far away, so we went to visit the prison instead. It was a working prison from time of building (1880 or thereabouts) until 1993. It was a good tour with some interesting insights into gangs in NZ, and the earthquake.
Then it was back to Joy and Graeme's in time for a dip in the pool before dinner. Carol and Ray from the TR Register also ate with us, and we had a spendid evening. It was so good I forgot to take any photos of them, their lovely house and garden or Graeme's cars.
No comments:
Post a Comment