The one thing that took me by surprise this Easter weekend was how much I was going to love the Art Deco feel of Napier. It all started on a lazy Sunday morning were we had a bit of a lie-in before venturing into town in search for food. As we slowly walked around and inspected the cafes, it was becoming very obvious that our big plans from the night before of doing as much as humanly possible just wasn’t going to happen. Instead we took our time and enjoyed brunch before slowly strolling through town until we came across the Art Deco Trust.
It was here that we were introduced to a volunteer tour guide who knew everything imaginable about
the town. She took us up and down streets and told stories about love and tragedy that took place in Napier. Everything from how her cousin narrowly escaped being crushed by a piano and then sat on the pier with her mom to watch the landscape change before her eyes to a son having to make the decision to give his mom a fatal dose of morphine to keep her from burning alive in the fires that roared through the town after the earthquake. We peaked through mailbox slots and looked through windows to see the full extent of the beauty of the architecture.
This was my first taste of Napier but it definitely will not be the last. This tour was just a peek into how fabulous Napier can be over Art Deco weekend. It was then and there that the three of us decided that that’s one event next February that we won’t be missing.