Art Deco in the rain

When we arrive in Napier - after a fairly hairy drive in the driving rain and mist along a winding mountain road - it's raining and most people hunker down in the hostel, Archie's Bunker, to play board games and take advantage of the massive tv screen and huge amount of dvds (somehow the girls who choose our movies that night still manage to choose 3 absolutely cringe-worthy romcoms to watch, out of all that variety!).

Deciding to brave the weather (i'm from the land of rain, dammit), I head out to check out the Art Deco architecture which the town (city? town?) is famous for. It feels a little like wandering about on a film-set - not least because it's a damp Sunday afternoon and thus the steets are practically deserted. The buildings are quite nice to look at, but it all feels kind of fake and kitsch, although they were designed and built at the heigh of art deco/30s fashion.

written by

LizIsHere on March 26, 2010 from Napier, New Zealand

from the travel blog: New Zealand & Australia 2010

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That's because they were. Big earthquake in 1931 devastated most of the inner town - completely rebuilt from the ground up from then.

written by Leanne C on January 6, 2011

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