Napier is an unusual town (sorry, city) as most of the architecture is Art Deco. In 1931 there was a massive earthquake which practically levelled the place, the ensuing fires did the rest. The rapid rebuilding that occurred, despite the Great Depression, was clearly influenced by the architecture of the time. Each February they have an Art Deco weekend organised by the Art Deco Trust who have been keeping it going 20 years and there are lots of shops in town selling art deco momentos and clothing.
We visited the museum; they have a really good earthquake exhibition - quite moving. And we visited the Ply-Ability exhibit, all about ply-wood but strangely worth seeing.
One day we drove to Hastings; Napier's sister city, passing a fish and chip shop called The Frying Dutchman - hopefully in homage to the Simpsons. We also passed Cape Kidnappers; where there was an attempted abduction from Captain Cook's ship in 1769. We would have liked to have stopped and looked at the gannet colony there but unsurprisingly it was tipping down with rain.
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