New Zealand—Napier, February 11, 2025

Taupo to Napier, February 11, 2025

The bus to Napier took two hours, most of it through a winding mountain pass to the coast. It was a pleasant and scenic drive through forested mountains dotted by sheep ranches.  

Napier is famous for having one of the most complete collections of Art Deco buildings in the world. Tuesday, February 11th, was our first full day and after some investigating we managed to wrangle our way into an already full guided walking tour sponsored by Napier's Art Deco Trust on Wednesday, February 12th.

We spent the rest of the day walking the town taking pictures of Art Deco buildings. We also sought out the murals also prized in Napier. This brief description of the town on the 100% Pure New Zealand website is worth reading.

Miranda from the Napier Art Deco Trust got us into a full guided tour.

Click on pic to see before and after earthquake views or read about the earthquake here.

I'm looking forward to learning about these buildings on our guided tour Wednesday.

The Art Deco facade kept while the interior is reconstructed.

Had to get fortified at Ajuna bakery.

The flat white coffee in New Zealand is perfection.

As is this cardamom orange honey-syrup walnut cake.

We took a break when it started raining and headed back to our hotel for a few hours. As predicted the sun broke out at 3PM and we were off in search of murals.

Couldn't resist adding this building.

This and the next 6 pictures are one mural stretching across two walls.

Stunning detail merits a closer look.

The next three pictures are all one mural.

I scanned the length of the mural from both directions.

We also walked through the sunken gardens along Marine Parade, the two mile long walkway and road that parallels the beach. Between Marine Parade Road and the beach Marine Parade Park/Playground stretches two miles with gardens, fountains, a skate park, sculptures, a dome amphitheater, and cafes.

Marine Parade promenade.

Sound Shell, 1931. Venue for concerts.

Marine Parade Viewing Platform offers good views down the beach and back to town.

                                                       The Pacific Ocean scanning back to Napier.

 

Pania of the Reef. Read the story here.

Sunken gardens in bloom.

The gelato here is fantastic!

 

We walked a little over 7 miles today without being aware of it, because we took a coffee break at 11AM and a rain break for two hours between 1-3PM before continuing our mural hunt. We ended our day at Lone Star again, sharing a bacon swiss cheese burger and fries for dinner. Followed that up with a stroll to the pier, and gelato across the street from our hotel. At 8PM or so it was jammie time and that's when our feet reminded us that we covered a lot of paved ground today.

Tomorrow at 2PM we have a 1.5 hour guided Art Deco Trust guided walking tour, so we'll need to give our feet some relief the first part of the day.