Art Deco in Napier, New Zealand

Napier, New Zealand

Eastern Time plus 18 hours

We loved Napier! We had a fantastic day with our private tour guide, Robert. It was a special weekend in Napier. We arrived on Saturday, so it was really the biggest day of their year. They call it Art Deco Weekend. They were hit by a huge earthquake in the late 1930's and the city was rebuilt in the art deco style. Every year they celebrate on the weekend closet to the date of the earthquake. The people are dressed in the style of the 1930s, and many antique cars are seen around town. It is very festive with many, many events taking place.

As we pulled into port, it was obvious that docking would take a lot of maneuvering by the captain. We were the biggest ship ever to come to Napier. He had to do something like a Y turn to get us lined up at the dock. He had to turn around outside of port and reverse in. It took awhile so we were able to observe the city while it was happening. We also didn't arrive until 12:30 so it was light outside. We had a huge reception with people lining the dock, the hill and the street. We hadn't seen anything like it. The people viewing the ship caused a huge traffic jam. Stiring and Clare were in a cab and it took 1 ½ hours instead of the 7 or 8 minutes it usually took to go a short distance. (The trip also cost 110 New Zealand Dollars!)

There were huge piles of wood that were to be taken to China for paper and another section that was to be taken to China for toys and furniture. This is all farmed pine.

As we got off the ship, we were greeted by a huge antique car club. I wanted to take a picture coming down the gangway, but thought I might get pushed from behind as the passengers were so eager to get off of the ship. You can't tell by this, but I would say there were at least 100 cars.

We jumped in the van and took off to beat the traffic from the ship. Our first stop was a sheep shearing farm near Cape Kidnappers, one of the land formations of this area. The sheep dog in the demo is called a strong eyed hitting dog which is similar to a border collie or a type of border collie. She is worth about $2,500 NZ. Her name is Faye. She was excellent at rounding up the sheep, but she had her tongue hanging out here! We were shown how to shear a sheep in the modern way and also with an old time shears. This farm has been in the Gordon family for 6 generations. NZ has about 40 million sheep, about 10 sheep for each person. We were surprised to learn that China has the most sheep in the world. The farmers make most of their money in the meat rather than the wool.

Next we continued to wind through the agricultural area. The Napier area is a fruit bowl with the second most sunlight in New Zealand. Nelson beats them by just a few hours. The area is similar to the Napa Valley with 55 soil types, 3 rivers and frost is rare. They have great citrus, but can grow anything including over 100 varieties of apples. Napier is like California in the 1950s, but on the cutting edge of scientific advancement.

They grow many grapes for wine. These are sauvignon blanc grapes. New Zealand makes only about 0.5% of the world's wine, but has the highest average price per bottle because they make no bulk wine and they make their wine in the French style. We were in the Hawke's Bay area. Hawke's Bay is known for their red wines. Twenty years ago they had 9 wineries, now they have 62. We did a tasting of the Kim Crawford Wines.

We also stopped at the Craggy Range Winery... on our way through the Tuki Tuki Valley. Then went to a great cheese and ice cream place That is the name of the valley that is the sound of the heartbeat.
Then on to Temata Peak and the beautiful views.

On our way back to the ship we saw some of the Art Deco buildings.

Then back to the ship for a great send off with a Dixieland Band and crowds on the docks.