Wednesday morning we woke up just north of Wellington and drove up through the North Island to the east coast town of Napier in Hawkes Bay. Napier is a very unique town in that more of the buildings in the town were built during the Art Deco period, 1931-1933. On February 3, 1931 a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck 15 km off the coast of Napier causing horrific damage in the town. Every brick building in town collapsed and even the brick chimneys fell off the wooden houses. A few concrete and wooden buildings were left standing, but more building were destroyed. (Concrete building stood because they were stronger than brick, wooden buildings made it because they were more flexible than brick). Additionally, with the earthquake the entire area including and surrounding Napier rose 2 meters. This process exposed thousands of additional acres of land that were previously lagoon and/or swamp land but busted all of the underground water mains. With the earthquake came fire as well and since all the water mains were broken there was no way to put out the fires that burned in the town for 2 days. Many of the building that did survive the earthquake were later gutted or completely destroyed by fire. They did dynamite some buildings to create fire breaks to keep the fires from burning down all of the houses, but in the city most of the buildings burned. Because the town was almost completely destroyed they had to rebuild the entire thing, and fast.
The factors that led to a quick rebuild of the city included removing the city council and appointing two leaders that had total control, an excess of available labor because of the great depression, and funding support from the government. The town employed 4 architectural firms, they started at the back of town and built towards the water, and within 22 months had rebuilt the entire town which was roughly 110 buildings, all solid concrete with steel beam support. As part of the rebuilt everything had to be strong and solid, no decorations could be put on the buildings that were not part of the building and everything had to be made out of concrete (no brick). There were no poles in the town after the rebuild, no light poles, no electricity poles, no street signs. It wasn't until recently that lamp posts and street signs were installed in the town. The rebuild really is amazing, especially when you look at Christchurch now and see how 4 years later they really haven't done anything, and in an ere where better building technology is available and labor would still be easy to find.
The town of Napier did not understand how valuable this architectural marvel was until the 1980s. For much of the time between the 1930s and the 1980s people did not really value the fact that they had an entire town built during the art deco area, something you can't find anywhere else in the world. In the 1980s a bank purchased two of these art deco buildings and tore them down to build once new building in their place. A few of the towns people who really liked the art deco buildings decided to hold tours of the town one cold winter day around the time of these buildings destruction to showcase to the towns people how important these buildings were. They planned for a capacity of 200 people and 1000s came. This was when the Art Deco Trust was born. Around 2000 they got the city council on board and since then there have been building restrictions on what can be torn down and what can't along with grants for restoration and unkeep of these historic buildings. They have also turned this architectural marvel into a tourist attraction. There are guided tours daily, which my mother and I took and where I learned most of this information, as well as Art Deco Weekend each year in February which attracts enthusiasts from around the world.
Approximately 110 buildings were constructed during the 2 year rebuild of the town followed by another 20 or so in the years following. Even despite the installation of building restrictions into the early 200s, only 12 of the original 140 or so have been lost. If you ever get to New Zealand this town is quite amazing.
Okay, so that's what I have about the history of Napier which we learned on Thursday morning during our tour. Back to Wednesday.
Shortly after leaving Lower Hutt where we stayed Tuesday night we started up a huge hill and through a mountain pass. This was a very stressful drive, not only because it is a well traveled road, but it is very hilly, windy, and my radiator was overheating. It has a leak on the top where as the water heats up it all escapes as steam. When we got to the other side we bought stop leak from a mechanic and that seems to be holding now, thank god. 2nd time stop leak has saved the day for my radiator. Good thing it only has to last me another couple of weeks. (But how sad that day will be when I have to get rid of that car.... tear!). We then continued our drive up to Napier stopping a bad cafe for a bad snack along the way.
When we pulled into Napier in the earl afternoon we went straight to the iSite, got a hotel room lined up, and had a relaxing afternoon. We went out for dinner at an Irish pub in town, nothing spectacular, and then had an early night.
Oh, this was also my 1 year anniversary from being away from America! Can't believe it's been so long!
Thursday morning we got up early, wished my father a Happy Birthday, and started planning out day. Those of you that have sent me Happy Birthday messages for my father, I have passed them all along! Thank you!
My mother and I went on our Art Deco walking tour of Napier in the morning followed by a nice little lunch near the water. My father spent the morning of his 60th birthday enjoying the beach. We met up after lunch and toured the town's historic prison together. The prison was quite an amazing place. It was built sometime in the mid-late 1800s, I know it was in use by the 1870s as some stories took place then but I'm not exactly sure on it's construction date. It was a working prison until 1993 when it was eventually shuttered. While you are walking around the prison doing your audio tour it is really hard to believe that it was in use up until 20 years ago as it seems just so old run down. It has since been used as a hostel and is currently housing the 12 employees that work there. Creepy!!!
From what I remember of the tour, the capacity of the prison was around 45 people. Many famous NZ criminals have been held there including gang leaders from the large Maori, black, and white supremacist gangs. Additionally, the richest drug dealer during the 1960s got his start at that prison. He was originally incarcerated for a theft/robbery charge but while in prison realized how lucrative drug dealing could become. After leaving prison he went into drug dealing, using boats to ferry his drugs from Thailand and Indonesia and working to get as many young people addicted to hard drugs as possible. Upon his death he had over 50 million british pounds in the bank. That is so much money!
The prison was affect by the 1931 earthquake, just as the town was, and many of the hallways in the prison are twisted from the movement of the earth.
After the prison tour we went back to our motel to relax before our big celebrator dinner at Mister Ds. In reality it didn't turn out to be a huge celebration, but it was a big dinner, and fabulous. The place reminded me a lot of Ortolana, the restaurant where I worked in Auckland. The food was delicious and we went back from breakfast the next morning.
Friday, yesterday, we got up early, had breakfast, and then drove up the east cost to Kuaotunu in the Coromandel where we have rented a bach and will be staying until Tuesday. The drive was long and exhausting, but we made it last night, had a nice home cooked meal (spaghetti with sausage sauce, one of my favorite meals from back home - simple and tasty), watched some TV and just relaxed!
This morning, Saturday, we got up, walked over the walking bridge from our bach into "town", got coffee and pastries and then went for a nice beach walk. Now I'm just back at the cafe using the wifi and no plans for the rest of the day except a nice pizza dinner at the only restaurant in town, Luke's Kitchen, where I would come last summer when I was living over the hill in Coromandel Town.
That's all for now, folks. Back to relaxing for me now.
Best!
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