Art Deco in Napier

On 3rd February 1931, an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter Scale levelled the centre of Napier on the North Island. When they rebuilt the town, they did so in the most modern style of the time - Art Deco. With its 140 surviving period buildings, Napier ranks alongside Miami Beach as one the best preserved Art Deco towns.

I opted to do  a self-guided walk around the centre, armed with a NZ$5 booklet available from either the information centre, or the beautiful Art Deco shop, itself housed in a lovely period building that was formerly the Fire Bridge station.

At first, the only obvious signs of Art Deco are the street names periodically tiled into the pavement. But you soon realise that Napier is a city of 2 halves - at eye level, it looks very modern, with cafes and boutique shops. Once you look up to the 1st floor of buildings though, you start to see the embellishments and date plaques from the 1930s.

The walk takes between 60-100 minutes, depending on how long you spend at each stop. I started out by taking photos of absolutely everything, and then had to ration myself otherwise I was never going to finish before dark! The one thing that you have to be careful about is watching for traffic since you're always looking up and then walking backwards to get a better view.

Some buildings also have Art Deco interiors, such as the foyer of the Daily Telegraph building, with reproduced period light fittings and linoleum floor. I was too shy to go in and have a look around, especially with the receptionist giving me suspicious looks as I kept trying to sneak looks in through the half open front door. At that moment I wished that I was on one of the guided tours, when there would be safety in numbers.