Beyond the Edge Beyond the Bar: 14.02 Napier: Ahuriri & Napier Hill

Officially Jean and I are now resident aliens in New Zealand. She entered the country under a work visa. I entered under an extended visitor visa. Oddly, two years ago when we lived in New Zealand for six months, we both entered with work visas (though it was understood I wasn’t to seek gainful employment). I often wondered whether Immigration New Zealand had made a mistake in issuing me a work visa. In any event I've no work visa this time and here we are again.

New Zealand hasn't changed, but our appreciation of her has. In our our previous stay we lived in a rural town, Te Awamutu (TA). But this time we're in Napier, like TA in the North Island but unlike TA in being a port along New Zealand's Pacific coast. When we came to New Zealand for the first time two years ago the country was somewhat exotic. This time because of the felicities of our previous stay we were returning to a friend, as it were. Anyone who returns again and again to a certain lake or wilderness, to a favored city, town, or country place, or to a long-established vacation retreat knows the feeling. There is a treasure of happy memories coupled with an anticipation of renewal and even novelty.

As I mentioned in my preceding blogpost, most cities in New Zealand have more the feel of a big town. The exceptions to this rule are Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and perhaps Hamilton and Dunedin. Be that as it may, Napier is regarded as a 'port city'. I won't argue with the port part of that claim. Given my interests in transportation, I was tempted to craft my first Napier blogpost around a portrait of Napier’s maritime face. I’ll probably eventually do that, but not in this post. For me to dwell on Napier's port and harbourage would be a self-indulgence. I'd rather not be like a tippling seaman unable to steer beyond the 'first bar on the right', an all-too-common hazard I discussed in Blogpost 13.09.

We each have our habits, interests, and dispositions, which hopefully serve like gravity to keep us coherent and in our wonted orbits. While this gravitational coherence and ordered progress is generally helpful in a developed human being, our habits, interests, and dispositions can impair our ability to see anew and afresh what each day, each place, and each person presents to us or commands from us, thanks be to God.

Today’s post reflects the freshness of circumstance of the newly arrived. It doesn't present an overview of Napier. Nor does it even purport to offer what might be termed 'highlights' or 'critical takeways' about the town. For that one would be advised to take counsel for starters from the Napier i-Site, Napier's tourist information center. Instead, I offer up the peripatetic, ad hoc, and sometimes accidental views arising from the initial wanderings that Jean and I have made in the Napier district in which we now live—Ahuriri—and in the district to our immediate south and east—Napier Hill.

We find ourselves living in a minimalist apartment building facing a fishing harbour in Ahuriri, a district on the north end of Napier. This district is the oldest part of Napier, serving initially as a fishing village but now hosting a veritable casserole of human activity. Art galleries, boutiques, web designers, adventure outfitters, bars, restaurants, and eateries often occupy buildings whose businesses were once solely dedicated to supporting the maritime trade. Here is a sampling of Ahuriri vistas.

2.B Morning Light on Waghorne St, Ahuriri, Napier

2.C Morning Light along Hardinge Rd, Ahuriri, with Port of Napier Beyond

2.D Early Evening on West Quay, Diners in the Background and a Few Vintage Cars in the Foreground

2.E Along Customs Quay, Ahuriri

2.F Old Customs House, Ahuriri

2.G West Quay (Left); Napier Sailing Club Docks (Right)

2.H New Ahuriri Housing along Domett St, with Hospital Hill in the Background

This past weekend Jean and I wandered around by car and on foot through the largely residential neighborhoods of the Napier Hill district. The district also contains the former Napier Hospital, still awaiting demolition (and site redevelopment) after being abandoned in 1998. The western end of Napier Hill bears the name 'Hospital Hill'. Near the old hospital are the Napier Botanical Gardens and the Old Napier Cemetery, which we happened upon. At the east end of Napier Hill is the Bluff Hill Domain and Lookout (‘Domain’ is Kiwiese for an urban park), from which one has a splendid view of the Pacific and, close at hand, the Port of Napier.

Here below are additional photos from our initial foray into the persona of Napier. These photos were taken on Napier Hill on Saturday 8 November 2014, two days following our rather cold, wet, and blustery arrival in Napier (Fresh snow had appeared on the highest hilltops!). Spring is a highly variable season even in New Zealand. But this Saturday was a glorious day.

Warm regards,

Tim (& Jean)

P.S. Napier's Hill's various parts have various names--Hospital Hill, Bluff Hill, for example--and often enough the locals simply refer to 'the Hill', which embraces the entirety. The entirety looks to be finally receiving a proper name, an old, Maori name that presumably antedates the arrival of the British. A Hawke's Bay Today article of 12 October 2015 discusses the prospect of the Hill's receiving the name 'Mataruahou'.