It seems like I am always playing catch up with my blog posts… My Brother and his Partner Katha came to NZ travel and to visit Mary and me. We decided to spend New Years in Napier the Art Deco Capital in the mighty Hawksbay. Napier has a very interesting, but tragic history. An earthquake on 3 February 1931 levelled a vast majority of the city and uplifted an area of 1500 km2 up to almost 3 meters, which makes up a big part of todays Napier.
The majority of the town was rebuilt in a short period of time in the Art Deco style popular at the time. Even though a few building got replaced over the time, Napier still claims the best-preserved Art Deco towns in the world hence the byname Art Deco Capital. The people of Napier celebrate this fact with a big festival every year where you can travel back in time in the 1930s. But you can get a peak into that area jus by spending some time Napier. Sometimes it feels like the place is frozen in time, and for the full experience I would recommend a vintage car tour with the Art Deco Trust. We did the tour and it was just amazing, you can find all the buildings easily by yourself, but it is nice to get a little more background information and to be driven in style with a car from the 1930s. Due to a rainy day we also visited the National Aquarium of New Zealand, which is not a must-do but great for a rainy day.
