A day of Decodance

Napier is a small city located in Hawke's Bay on the eastern coast of the North Island. This region is renowned for it's Mediterranean-style climate (enjoying some of the highest number of sunshine hours in New Zealand) and producing some of the world's finest wineries, as well as being New Zealand's largest apple, pear and stone fruit producer. However, it's that the events that took place on 3^rd February 1931, which have largely defined Napier as the self-proclaimed "Art Deco Capital of the World". It was on this day that a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake known as the Hawke's Bay Earthquake claimed 258 lives, making it New Zealand's greatest natural disaster.

The mosaic designed by local artist, Liz Earth incorporates the poster of the 1933 New Napier Carnival

The city was quickly rebuilt in the Art Deco style (including Stripped Classical, Spanish Mission and Chicago School styles) as this was the popular style of the time and as a result Napier has the largest concentration of Art Deco buildings in the Southern Hemisphere, even rivalling the South Beach area of Miami. What makes the architecture in Napier so captivating is the use of Maori design elements and motifs, which are found nowhere else in New Zealand.

This year is the 81^stanniversary of the Hawke's Bay Earthquake and the 24^th Art Deco Weekend, which is one of the largest events of its type in New Zealand. It is also the 75^th anniversary of the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF), hence the theme "A Tribute to Aviation.

With the Art Deco Weekend in full swing we took part in one of the Art Deco Trust's guided tours called "Deep in the Art of Deco Walk". This was a unique opportunity to explore Napier's Art Deco interiors to learn about some of the best-kept secrets. The walk was two hours long and took us inside ten buildings which aren't normally accessible to the public. Starting off at the Prairie style Clive Square Community Centre (1925) we walked down to the Municipal Theatre (1938) to check out the foyer area, followed by the mezzanine of the Daily Telegraph Building (1932).

The neon lighting in the Municipal Theatre is reminiscent of the Hollywood era

The light fittings in the Daily Telegraph Building are replicas of the originals

View looking up in the foyer area to the mezzanine floor

We then visited the recently restored Harton's Building (1932) is one of two buildings in Napier with barley twisted columns, and the 1935 extension of the Edwardian-style County Hotel added to the western half of building. The County Hotel is now the only example of a Victorian-Edwardian classical style building that survived the devastating 1931 earthquake.

The internal leadlights of the County Hotel are a mixture of Art Noveau and Deco-eqsue shapes

The grand piano in the lobby area of the original 5 star hotel in Napier

The original Edwardian exterior of the hotel

The Spanish Mission style Hartson's Building was designed by E.A.Williams

This is considered one of the finest shop fronts in Napier

The building has always been a music shop and was once owned by Neville Hartson

Rounding off the tour we saw the impressive Louis Sullivan inspired old AMP Building (1934), the Stripped Classical Former Government Buildings (1938), the Maori decorated ASB Bank (1932) - apparently this is one of the best examples of a European-use building of Maori design. The final buildings were two office buildings, the first being Devon House (1934), which was designed by the famous Auckland architects, Gummer, Ford, Hoadley & Budge, as well as the enchanting glass dome in the Sainsbury, Logan & Williams Building (1932).

Hanging light fitting in the Old AMP Building

The safe to the Old AMP Building which is now the New Zealand Wine Centre

Heavy bolts indicated an early form of "Constructivism" in the Former Government Buildings

The Stripped Classical entrance

 

The external parapet of the ASB Bank has an authentic Whakairo design

The impressive coffered ceiling is bordered by a Kowhaiwhai design

In corner of the ceiling panels are Taiahas (spearheads)

Etched glass Art Deco design in the doors of Devon House

The building's glass ceiling was revealed after it was refurbished in the mid 1990s

Foyer area with additional mezzanine floor

Sainsbury, Logan & Williams Building has always been the offices of Hawke's Bay oldest legal firm

The glass dome in all its glory

More photos of the various Art Deco buildings around Napier from our original trip can be found my flickr photostream on the following link.
 
Throughout the streets there were lots of people dressed up in the 1930s style to get in the mood for the weekend and there were plenty of vintage cars on show. There were all sorts of makes and models pre-dating 1946 including Fords, Buicks, Chryslers, Jaguars, Plymouths, Rolls Royces, plus many others. It's possibly the greatest number of classic cars I've ever since all in one place.

A vintage Rolls Royce

A dapper gentlemen admiring a classic Austin car

A Chrysler hood ornament similar to the ones found on the Chrysler Building in New York

Possibly one of the most famous Art Deco buildings in the world, the Chrysler Building

Later on during the day we caught some of the flying display where some classic war planes thundered through the sky above the Sound Shell performing a variety of death-defying stunts. More impressively was the navy helicopter circling around in front of the Veronica Sunbay - at one point someone from the helicopter was winched down and flown around above the ocean!

The RNZAF Red Checkers were thrilling crowds above the Colonnade

Some impressive helicopter manoeuvres in front of the Veronica Sunbay

The real highlight of the evening was the Big Sounds Tonight event at the Sound Shell. As the sun was setting over Hawkes Bay, the Hawke's Bay Jazz Club Big Band we're playing all the hits from 1930s to a decent size crowd in the Colonnade. People were dancing at the front of the Sound Shell and plenty of others brought folding chairs to get a decent view of the stage.

Hawke's Bay Jazz Club Big Band on the Sound Shell

In the interval we had time to check out a World War II search light down by the main beach and to take some pictures of the colourful Tom Parker fountain as it was providing a visual spectacle with it's lights and water jets display.

Lizzie by the World War II searchlight

The enchanting Tom Parker Fountain

Why does it always rain in Taupō?

After a surprisingly long coach journey (just under 5 hours) we arrived in Taupō, which is halfway between Auckland and the capital, Wellington. Lake Taupō is the largest lake in New Zealand and it sits in the caldera of a dormant super volcano!

Lake Taupo with Mount Tauhara in the background

Māori arch down by the lake front

One guide I read described Taupō as "the Queenstown of the North Island", although I really don't think it deserves this title, even five years since we last visited. Yes it offers lots of adrenaline-pumping activities such as sky diving, bungy jumps, jet-boats, waterskiing, sailing, etc., but most of these activities aren't easily accessible from the centre of town. Taupō also lacks the vibe that Queenstown has, it's difficult to put my finger on it but it felt a little too quiet at times.

Lake Taupō is beautiful but the town often lacked atmosphere

It also seems that we have a knack of picking days to stay in Taupō where it looks like it's going to rain! Last time we were here it rained constantly for four days and we never got a chance to do the Tongariro Crossing. Yet again, the rain made an appearance for our stopover - it wasn't even like it was heavy rain, it's just annoying, persistant drizzle. As far as I know Taupō doesn't have higher than average rainfall than anywhere else in New Zealand.

On our only full day in Taupō, we decided to revisit the Huka Falls, but left out the "Craters of the Moon" as this was possibly one of the longest walks we did on our last trip (and yes it did rain that time). Starting off from our hostel we walked to the picturesque Taupō bungy site, set high on the cliffs above the Waikato River. Not long into the walk the heavens opened with drizzle and this became a on-off feature of the day. From the bungy site we picked up the Huka Falls Walkway and stopped off at the hot water stream. There is a pleasant and well used spot by the bridge where you take a dip for free in the geothermally heated water.  Although we didn't bring any swimming gear we tested the water for temperature and it was amazing how hot it was.

Me and Lizzie testing out the temperature in the Otumuheke Stream

"It's a mighty hot in here"

Continuing along the walkway, we walked along the East bank of the river for about 45 mins. It was quite an easy and enjoyable walk to the falls but there were a couple of steep hills with some sheer drops if you got too close to the edge.

The Waikato River is crystal clear but has some strong currents

The Huka Falls are quite unusual as they're not the spectacular waterfalls you would associate with some parts of the South Island but are formed from a narrow split in the bedrock. This results in 200,000 litres of water per second being forced through this channel plunging down a 9 meter drop - that's enough to fill five Olympic swimming pools per minute! After descending the falls, the river is a breathtaking blue colour due the mass of tumbling air bubbles it picks up, which also gives the falls their name, after the māori word for 'foam'.

The falls from Huka Falls Road lookout

A creative shot using a long exposure to capture the force of water

The footbridge spans over the Waikato River in the middle of the falls

At the bottom of the falls was a jet boat giving thrill seekers a close up view. Interestingly enough, the jet boat was actually invented in New Zealand by William Hamilton in the 1950s.

The walk back along the Waikato River seemed a lot quicker and we even found a fun park to play in!

Lizzie first down the zip line!

Now my turn!

Ironically, the day we left for Napier turned out to be the nicest day weather-wise! Heading down to the lake front, a group of about 25 rugby players from the (Waikato) Chiefs turned up, stripped off and headed into the lake to cool off, along with their newest signing and New Zealand Professional Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Sonny Bill Williams. Apparently, he's also the first New Zealander to play international matches in Rugby League and Rugby Union. I think Lizzie was secretly enjoying watching all the semi-naked men.

It's not everyday a rugby team turns up to dip in the lake!

I did read in the newspaper that the Chiefs would be in Taupō playing a pre-season match but I'd never imagined we'd see the whole team within touching distance. I guess it shows that you can be the right place, at the right time!