Beyond the Edge Beyond the Bar: 13.03 Napier: Napier & Art Deco

This past weekend a northern portion of the North Island observed Auckland Day or, more properly, ‘Auckland Anniversary Day’, marking the arrival of William Hobson in the Bay of Islands on 29 January 1840. Hobson went on to become New Zealand’s first governor, appointed by Queen Victoria. Auckland Province, abolished in 1876 along with New Zealand’s other provinces, originally included territory embracing the Waikato Region. New Zealand is now divided into 16 ‘regions’, as they’re called, the regions generally being subdivided into cities and districts. Given that the Waikato Region was once part of Auckland Province, Auckland Day was observed as a legal holiday (on Monday) at least at Jean’s place of work. So we had a long weekend for visiting a place, say, a half-day’s journey away. Based on the recommendations of friends, we decided to undertake a journey to Napier, a small city (population about 59,000) on the North Island’s east coast, on Hawke's Bay.

Not wanting to drive, we chose to travel on InterCity Coachlines, a business whose roots go back to 1879. InterCity’s slogan is ‘low fares, nationwide, every day’. InterCity’s system map appears here. People traveling for business, government, or other organizations are likely to fly in New Zealand if there’s any distance involved. All other Kiwi travelers not availing themselves of an automobile are likely to be found traveling on InterCity or its competitors. InterCity’s services are on a reservation basis. Luggage within limits is handled for free from origin to final destination. Buses are clean. The buses run on time or close to time. And they serve the towns, hamlets, and nowheresvilles that airlines cannot serve. The bus stations or shelters, especially in smaller towns, are centrally located, clean, and even pleasant.

One thing to keep in mind about New Zealand: it’s a bigger and more rugged country than might be imagined. Even without the benefit of (the South Island’s) Southern Alps, the North Island is rugged. Take a look at the shape of New Zealand’s two big islands, especially the North Island. There are enumerable bays, bights, indentations, and projections of the coastline. This seemingly gratuitous complexity is matched by the complexity of the land, especially on the North Island, where volcanism has been the primary agent of land formation. Even the comparatively plain-like Waikato is rumpled with thousands of hills and mini-mounts scattered about as if by caprice. Kiwi highway routes are laid with the limitations imposed by this geography.

The air distance between Hamilton and Napier is 237 km (147.3 miles); the road distance is 289 km (179.6 miles). In this comparison, as in other instances, I rely on web resources. Allowing for errors in these distances, you can still rightly imagine that the roads connecting these two cities can’t be arrow straight. Hamilton/Napier land travelers must ascend to and then descend from what is called the ‘Central Plateau’ (or ‘Waimarino Plateau’). Except for some areas south of Taupo (a resort town on the plateau), straight stretches are few. The Central Plateau is largely bereft of what Kiwis would call ‘agricultural’ activity, that is crop raising. Instead ‘pastoral’ activity predominates, mostly cattle and sheep ranching. Traveling southward from Taupo to Napier on NZ Route 5, the pastoral intermingles and then is entirely supplanted by forestry. Before leaving the Central Plateau, Route 5 enters mountain territory and eventually exploits a gorge in corkscrew fashion to attain the flatlands girdling Hawke Bay.

Napier is a seaport town. Its harbor accommodates about 60 cruise ships a season, so we were told, the cruise season being from October to early April. Cargo ships make Napier a port of call year around. Among the items of export are fruits and, not least, timber. On Route 5 semi after semi can be seen hauling logs to Napier, presumably much of it for export. Export timber is sent primarily to China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. The commercial forests are clear-cut when they are logged. Besides the commercial forests, New Zealand has 20 ‘forest parks’, which equate in status and function to state and national forests in the USA. In any event the forests were left behind when the bus reached the valley floor that Route 5 follows into the coastal flatlands.

Napier appeals to the international discretionary traveler for either of two reasons: winemaking or architecture. The region’s viniculture supports reportedly about 70 wineries. I can’t say anything about the wineries; I had but one glass of wine in a restaurant, a superb Dutch Indonesian restaurant. The restaurant left more of an impression than the wine.

As for Napier’s architecture, the city bills itself as the ‘Art Deco Capital of the World’. How can that be? The initial cause of that status was a devastating 1931 earthquake that was accompanied by a fire. The central business district (or ‘CBD’) was largely wiped out. While the residential areas of a then much smaller city escaped largely unscathed, Napier’s people were bereft of places to conduct business, worship, and so forth. Sheds were erected to sustain community activity while new buildings were erected to replace what had been destroyed. Throughout the 1930s the new buildings erected in the CBD incorporated the practices and motifs of the then-popular Art Deco, Stripped Classical, and Art Deco-ized ‘Spanish Mission’ styles. Even such things as manhole covers incorporated Art Deco motifs. One such cover and a few other Napier sightings show up in the photos below (Marine Parade is the street along Napier's beach-front park or 'domain', as it's termed).

It’s been said that the past is a foreign country. Foreign or not, the familiar can begin to appear stale, strange, and at some point disposable (if a tradition goes dead). Napier’s Art Deco architectural treasury by the 1970s and 1980s began to seem, at least to some, undesirable or at least unworthy of preservation. Demolitions or the prospect of demolitions prompted some of the locals to undertake to orchestrate a community effort to preserve the Art Deco treasury of Napier. To do that, of course, the community had to be convinced the effort would be justified. A history of this effort may have already been written. In any event the effort’s success is readily apparent. An 'Art Deco Trust' acts as the formal entity for sustaining the Art Deco tradition in Napier. An annual Art Deco festival (the twenty-fifth this year, I believe) is held every February. And to cap things off, UNESCO has considered designating Napier a World Heritage site. If you care to learn more about Art Deco in Napier you can tap the trust’s website. Jean and I took an Art Deco Trust guided tour while we were in Napier. We can commend it to architecture or history buffs.

Allow, if you would, two closing comments, one about CBDs in New Zealand and the other about ‘nowheresvilles’ anywhere.

As for New Zealand CBDs, a distinguishing mark of New Zealand is that the CBD lives. Kiwi CBDs don’t have the flavor of abandonment, denial, or decrepitude that too often describes American downtowns (in cities and towns). To be sure, as in the States, retail development occurs on the roads leading in or out of downtowns. But, if recent travels are indicative, Kiwi CBDs still contain the heavy majority of retail outlets in towns, in villages, and at least in smaller cities. And they look prosperous. Even the inevitable fast food stores and national chain stores are indigenized—set where people walk around—rather than being set apart, accessible for people in cars. Why the Kiwi CBD remains vital in Kiwi culture is an open question. But seemingly Napier’s Art Deco preservation effort was able to tap into that vitality, rather than fighting predominating centrifugal tendencies.

As for nowheresvilles, there’s always more that could be said. The buses operating between Taupo and Napier are apparently regularly scheduled to meet at a nowheresville that I'll call 'McVicar Road'. It's a wide spot where a McVicar Road touches Route 5 about 30 minutes north of Napier. Here the northbound and southbound buses arrive within minutes of one another and exchange drivers, then go on their ways. At McVicar Road you’ll also find the entry to the Mountain Valley Adventure Lodge. If you want a glimmer of the somewhere of this nowheresville, check out the lodge’s website. Even a nowheresville is a somewhere for someone. And with that in mind...

Warm regards,

Tim & Jean

NB On 6 November 2014 Jean and I arrived back in Napier with the expectation that we'd be living in Napier until 14 February 2015, while Jean would be working for the Hawke's Bay District Health Board. Napier-focused blogposts published to date following the 2014 arrival may be found at 14.02 (Ahuriri & Napier), 14.03 (Napier Rhythms), 14.07 (Napier Art Deco), 15.01 (Napier Port), and 15.06 (Napier Deco Renaissance).