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Napier, New Zealand

The town is 332 kilometres (about four hours) northeast by road from the capital, Wellington. It is the second largest city in the Hawke's Bay region, which is the largest crossbred wool centre in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the largest apple, pear and stone fruit producing areas in New Zealand. It has also become an important grape growing and wine production area with the fruit passing from the growers around Metropolitan Hastings and then to Napier for exporting. There are large frozen meat, wool, pulp and timber tonnages passing through Napier’s port.

Napier is a popular retirement town and tourist resort, and has one of the most photographed tourist attractions in the country, a statue on Marine Parade called Pania Of The Reef. Her statue is regarded in Napier in much the same way that the Little Mermaid statue is regarded in Copenhagen, and bears some similarities to its Scandinavian equivalent.

Napier has a well documented Māori history. When the Ngati Kahungunu party of Taraia reached the district many centuries ago, the Whatumamoa, Rangitane and the Ngati Awa and elements of the Ngati Tara iwi existed in the nearby areas of Petane, Te Whanganui-a-Orotu and Waiohiki. Later, the Ngati Kahungunu became the dominant force from Poverty Bay to Wellington. They were one of the first Māori tribes to come in contact with European settlers. Te Whanganui-a-Orotu is still regarded as a Taonga Tuku Iho (a treasure for all time).

Chief Te Ahuriri cut a channel into the lagoon space at Ahuriri because the Westshore entrance had became blocked, threatening cultivations surrounding the Whanga and the fishing villages on the islands in the lagoon. The rivers were continually feeding freshwater into the area.

The first European to see the future site of Napier was Captain James Cook who sailed down the east coast in October 1769. He commented: "On each side of this bluff head is a low, narrow sand or stone beach, between these beaches and the mainland is a pretty large lake of salt water I suppose." He said the harbour entrance was at the Westshore end of the shingle beach. The site was subsequently visited and later settled by European traders, whalers and missionaries. By the 1850s farmers and hotel-keepers arrived.

The Crown purchased the Ahuriri block (including the site of Napier) in 1851. In 1854 Alfred Domett was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands and resident magistrate at Ahuriri. A plan was prepared and the town named after Sir Charles Napier, hero of the Battle of Meeanee in the Indian province of Sindh. Domett named many streets in the settlement to commemorate the great colonial era of the British Indian Empire. He also displayed his own literary preferences by naming streets after famous artists and literary figures.

The town was constituted a boroughin1874 and development of the surrounding marsh lands and reclamation proceeded slowly. Between 1852 and 1876 Napier was the administrative centre for the Hawke's Bay Provincial Government but in 1876 the Abolition of Provinces Act dissolved provincial government, replacing it with a central assembly in Wellington.

Development was generally confined to the hill and to the port area of Ahuriri. In the early days Napier consisted of an oblong mass of hills (Scinde Island) almost entirely surrounded by water, from which ran out two single spits, one to the north and one to the south. There was a swamp between the now Hastings Street and Wellesley Road and the water extended to Clive Square.

On3 February 1931 Napier was levelled by an earthquake and ensuing fires which killed 258 people. The town centre was destroyed and rebuilt in the popular Art Deco style of the time. Some 40 km² of today's Napier was undersea before the earthquake raised it. Although a few Art Deco buildings were replaced with contemporary structures during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s (including ironically, the Art Gallery), most of the centre remained intact for long enough to become recognized as architecturally unique, and from the 1990s onwards had been protected and restored. Napier and South Beach (Miami) are considered by many Art Deco enthusiasts the two best preserved Art Deco towns, Miami Beach being mainly in the later Streamline Moderne Art Deco style.

In January 1945, the German submarine U-862 entered the Port of Napier undetected. That event later became the basis of a widely circulated post-war myth that Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Timm took his crew ashore near Napier to milk cows to supplement their rations.

The town is located on a headland (Bluff Hill) and surrounding plain at the southeastern edge of Hawke Bay, a large semi-circular bay which dominates the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The coastline of the town was substantially altered by a large earthquakein1931. Apart from Hastings, several other, smaller towns lie close to the city, some of which (such as Taradale) are now little more than large suburbs. Other surrounding towns include Bay View, to the north, Clive, to the south, and Flaxmere, west of Hastings City.

The town enjoys some of the highest sunshine hours in New Zealand, its warm, relatively dry climate the result of its location on the east coast, a mediterranean climate delivered from the waters to the north, and its strategic position in Hawke's Bay. Most of New Zealand's weather patterns cross the country from the west, and the town lies in the rain shadow of the North Island Volcanic Plateau and surrounding ranges such as the Kaweka Range. However, the town is prone to the remnants of tropical cyclones from the central Pacific Ocean, which occasionally are still at storm strength by the time that they have reached Hawke's Bay.

Napier's major tourist attraction is the town itself which draws Art Deco and architecture enthusiasts from around the world. The rebuilding period after the 1931 earthquake coincided with the shortlived and rapidly changing Art Deco era and the Great Depression, when little 'mainstreet' development was being undertaken elsewhere. As a result Napier's architecture is strikingly different from any other city; the other notable Art Deco city, Miami Beach, has Streamline Moderne Art Deco. The whole centre of Napier was rebuilt at once, and in many ways it resembles a film set as it has whole streets of 'in period' buildings, but it is a real city and the buildings are original. Santa Barbara, California was also rebuilt after an earthquake in 1925 and is notable for its Spanish Mission Style buildings.

Other tourist attractions in Napier include Marineland, the National Aquarium and the Soundshell. Attractions nearby include the Cape Kidnappers Gannet colony and many vineyards bordering Hastings City. Many people use Napier as a gateway to Hawkes Bay, flying in to the Hawkes Bay Domestic airport at Westshore from Wellington City, Auckland and Christchurch. From Napier, tourists explore Hastings City, Havelock North, Wairoa and Cape Kidnappers.

Tourists flock to Napier in February for Art Deco weekend and the Mission Concert Weekend. The large wine industry hosts the Annual Harvest Hawkes Bay Weekend. Once a year they have a weekend to celebrate art deco and the people dress up in there Art Deco clothes and have lunch down on Marine Parade

The range of industries in Napier and its environs include the electronics industry, the surrounding area wool trade, and the manufacture of fertilizer and wine. Napier is home to one of New Zealand's largest smoking tobacco plants. On 9 September, 2005, however, British American Tobacco announced it would close the iconic Rothmans factory, due to diminished demand. Production will be moved to Australia. The famous art deco-style factory has been producing up to 2.2 billion cigarettes a year for the New Zealand and Pacific Island markets. In March 1999, 19 people lost their jobs there because "fewer people are smoking". [1]

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• City of Napier
• Napier, New Zealand's Art Deco City
• Hawke's Bay Tourism