Our third stop in New Zealand was Napier, the port for the Hawkes Bay region. In 1931 much of the city was totally flattened by an earthquake and the city was rebuilt in the Art Deco style that was the fashion of the time. Today the rebuilt old city has one of the largest collection of Art Deco buildings in the world. Mum is an Art Deco nut, so one of the main reasons for choosing the December cruise on Voyager of the Seas was its day in Napier. We had a brilliant guide, John, one of the Tours By Locals team. He made sure that Mum got the most out of the day. Unka Mark and Aunty Vicki came on the tour with us and they say it was the best day of the whole cruise. The first photo shows us at a lookout point with views over the city and Hawkes Bay. There are several interesting (or peculiar) houses along the roads in this area. In town, the classic building is the National Tobacco Company building, now a museum. I will show some photos of the inside in the next post. The bottom images are of the T&G building and the Art Deco Centre. You can also see some vintage cars in the photos. There are lots of these in Napier and they come out whenever a cruise ship is in port. In February there are big Art Deco festivals where the town, the cars and the people all "go back to the 1930s"; naturally, Mum is planning to be there for one of them. She spent a lot of time (and a fair amount of cash) in the Art Deco shops, so has her gear all ready.
Labels: cruising, New Zealand
# posted by Bart Bear @ 2:51 pm
