Started the day in Napier with a guided Art Deco walk around the town center. The walk ended in the Art Deco shop with a short video showing more about Art Deco architecture, featuring several buildings we know from our other travels (several from New York for example).
The Daily Telegraph
The Death and Rebirth of Napier The town of Napier was built on a small island connected to the mainland by a thin spit. In the 1920's it had become a thriving commercial centre and had grown to the point where engineers were attempting to reclaim land to futher expand the town. This attempt was unsuccesful. Then on February 3rd, 1931, a huge earthquake (7.9 on the Richter scale) and resulting fires destroyed most of the town, taking 162 lives. The other result of the earthquake was that parts of the surrounding area rose by as much as 2 metres, giving Napier an additional 40 square kilometers of land. Although this was the time of the great depression, a project was immediately launched to rebuild the town, which was mostly completed during the next few years. Several architectural firms worked, following basic guidelines set down by the local council, and with the aid of a group of architectural students from Auckland. The result is an entire town built in the heydey of what would later be known as the Art Deco style. Typical Art Deco features prevalent around town include:
AB corner
zigzags, representing technology and "the machine"
zigurrats, derived from the shape of skyscrapers in New York, which in turn were representative of the power and technological achievements of the time
speed lines (there was a new speed record broken every month in the 1930's)
sunbursts, for the dawn of a new era
Today the Art Deco Trust ensures that this heritage is preserved and admired.
Ngatarawa Stables Winery
In the afternoon we hopped on Vince's Wine Tours. Vince is a local character and wine buff who knew all about the local wine industry, seeming to be familiar with the staff and wines at all the local wineries, and when the winery staff were busy with other customers he would often step in and serve the wines to us himself. After the usual banter about Rugby and other important sporting matters, he took us to five wineries (with our favourite wines from each):
Huthlee Estate - 2000 Pinot Gris, 2001 Kaweka White and 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot
Ngatarawa Wines - Glazebrook Chardonnay, Alwyn Reserve Chardonnay and 1998 Late Harvest Riesling
Trinity Hill - 2001 Sauvignon Blanc, 1998 Gimblett Road Chardonnay and 2000 Hawkes Bay Pinot
Matariki - 1998 Chardonnay, 2000 Late Harvest Riesling, 1999 Quintology and 1999 Syrah
Sailor's memorial
We took the approach that this would be a survey trip, so we tasted and made notes, with an aim to calling in to buy our favourites on the way past tomorrow. We were joined on the trip by Sam and Karen, a couple of English lasses over to be bridesmaids for a friend's wedding (which will be held on Hahei beach) and Hugh and Kathy, a Scottish couple travelling on holidays, heading next to Sydney. Everyone had a fun time, and we agreed that the tour was a much more enjoyable (and safer) way to do the trip than driving ourselves.
After this Emma napped in the van while Cameron wandered around town watching the sun set and taking photos of buildings. Though continuing my bad run with sunrises and sunsets, last nights was much more spectacular. Doh.
