Napier – ”Art Deco Week”.

You have awful feelings, when you have waxed lyrical about a place to friends, that the reality, through their eyes, may be disappointingly different. Phew, the very pretty Napier, Art Deco capital of the world (the town claims), was a success. It was a gloriously hot and sunny day and we arrived early enough to be ahead of the crowds. Therefore, we were able to stroll the streets and enjoy seeing locals dressed in costume for the Deco Festival currently taking place in the town. Not only were they beautifully and stylishly dressed but they brought their Classic Cars out to play as well.

 

The free Wi-fi was rather less prevalent than the previous day and I confess our recent days have been so packed-full there has been little time to do the blog full justice. So, we found ourselves marvelling at the Deco buildings, chuckling at the ancient bulbous horns on the very old motors, strolling the sea front, admiring the costumes being paraded in The Gatsby Bar in the Masonic Building (just look at that fox fur!) and generally being too involved to think about internet connections. We even found time for coffee, sticky lemon cake (yummy) and ice cold beer! Not too shabby then.

I loved this town the first time I visited and I was happy to find its charm undiminished. Ann commented that it was a shame the fabulous deco buildings had been invaded by modern shops, leaving only the original style at the top. Many shops had incorporated beautiful Art Deco patterned glass in their windows so, for me, the spirit lives on. Of course, it was an earthquake that destroyed the original town, which was then completely rebuilt in the modern style of that age, the 1930s.

 

The shuttle bus driver gave us a startling fact on our return to the ship….there are over 200 earth tremors in NZ every week and the last one was Wednesday!!! The population is always at a state of readiness with households expected to be prepared with 3 days’ worth of supplies. Strangely enough, the ship’s captain mentioned some damage at one of our ports of call due to a recent tremor. Goodness, the earth is definitely going to be moving tomorrow – we are visiting Rotorua, where the earth’s crust is thinner than at any point on the planet and boiling mud pools and geysers are likely to spring up anywhere.

Carolyn’s Curios & Curiosities

‘Classic Cars, Clint and Culture’

 

I have described Napier in the sunshine as probably having the ‘prettiest’ main street I’ve seen. We only saw a little part of the town but what we saw was special.

The last visit of a Noordam here was on a very wet day, we were told. It may have been less impressive then but class shows through.

Interestingly, Clint (Eastwood) appeared larger than life on the wall of the Lone Star bar which, incongruously, had Wild Western decor with Art Deco dressed staff. Further, the music playing was Country & Western with the television showing the Winter Olympics Men’s Downhill!

Ann’s fundraising walk in the afternoon – nine times round Deck 3 to cover 5 km – went well and matched her performance the last trip. Kath and I supported (from a distance!) but succumbed to a delicious Strawberry Sorbet in the sun feeling only slightly guilty.

The evening meal tonight was, possibly, the best of what, overall, has been excellent fare, cooked and served close to perfection. I’ve been impressed that crockery has usually been shaped as equilateral curved triangles (one of my favourite shapes) and our ‘main’ course tonight was lobster and filet mignon – what’s not to like?!

 

The evening ended in the ‘Crows Nest’ bar doing crosswords.