Beyond the Edge Beyond the Bar: 14.03 Napier: Rhythms Daily and Seasonal

3.A Morning Street Sweeper along Dickens Street near Clive Square, Napier

The photo above was taken on a recent morning in Napier’s CBD ('Central Business District') near a small park called Clive Square. I chose this photo as a lead to this week’s blogpost because in some ways it’s emblematic of the turn away from the stream-of-consciousness style of living characteristic of a tourist to the rhythms one joins when taking up residence anywhere. The morning street sweeper affords an opportunity to discourse on the domestic rhythms of life in Napier, especially in comparison to Te Awamutu (‘TA’), our previous ‘hometown’ in New Zealand.

When we lived in TA, our apartment was within an easy 10-to-15 minute walk of the CBD. It took that time or much less to reach a Countdown supermarket, up to a dozen restaurants or eateries, the Te Awamutu library, a Warehouse discount store, a Bunnings hardware store, the NZ Postshop (the NZ Post postoffice), and St John’s Anglican, which we regularly attended. It was an easy part of my morning workday rhythm to attend to domestic chores at various establishments in Te Awamutu's CBD. Here in Napier's Ahuriri district access to restaurants and tony shops is easy enough, but to reach a sizable supermarket or the library or the post office or almost any store, for example, one must be more intentional, arranging to have use of the family car, for example, or planning on a long walk.

To be sure, we have a small Four Square supermarket nearby in our Ahuriri neighborhood. And as is common in New Zealand cities and towns, our neighborhood has a 'dairy', which is Kiwiese for what Americans would call a convenience store. Dairies are typically family-run. As dairies go, the Ahuriri district has a nice one.

3.B Corner Store Ahuriri (83 Bridge Street)

And we have a plethora of cafés, as sure a sign as any that we are indeed in New Zealand (See Blogpost 13.18). But, as I say, if I've got more extensive or serious business to attend to I have to visit Napier's CBD, at least a 30-to-40-minute walk away. Serious grocery shopping would entail a visit to one of two Countdowns in the CBD (oddly just catty-corner from one another!) or to the local Pak'NSave. Here’s a pair of photos of the local Pak’NSave, like its mates, a warehouse-style, largely no-frills store.

3.C Napier Pak'NSave

Once on a spur-of-the-moment visit to the Te Awamutu Countdown, I happened to walk past the town's Burger King drive-up window just as two ladies on horses rode up to order morning coffees (The Burger King was about 3 minutes from our TA apartment). I asked the ladies for permission to take photos of them having their morning coffees on horseback. They readily acceded. A photo or two of that occasion could have said much about the rhythm of life in Te Awamutu, but (alas) I failed to ask permission to publish the photos. So I didn't and won't publish them. And, in any event, probably no one or two photos could capture the elusive rhythms of Te Awamutu or any other place, including Napier. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a few words, I hope, can be helpful.

Napier's rhythms are not those of a rural town, but of a port and tourist town, moreover, a town with significant light manufacturing enterprises and a town that serves as the center for an agricultural district known for its vineyards, wineries, and orchards. Jean and I came to Napier not because of anything I've just mentioned but because of Jean’s work. She resumed work as an outpatient psychiatrist on November 10th, undertaking to serve the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board (‘HBDHB’) as a locum tenens for three months. In Te Awamutu as a locum tenens she worked two days weekly in our adopted hometown, two days in Te Kuiti, and one day weekly in Taumarunui. So there was a good deal of travel involved in her work when we were based in Te Awamutu.

With the Hawke's Bay District Health Board she’ll be working virtually every weekday in Napier (with about 60,000 residents). The town has no hospital. Rather, Hastings, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Napier, hosts the 400-bed Hawke’s Bay Hospital. Except for occasional staff meetings, Jean won’t be reporting to that hospital. Instead she'll ordinarily be reporting for work at the Napier Health Centre.

3.D Napier Health Centre (78 Wellesley Road)

3.E Artwork in Napier Health Centre Lobby Vestibule

3.F Services Offered at the Napier Health Centre

However, about once every three weeks she and other physicians are expected travel to a clinic maintained by the HBDHB at Wairoa, which like Napier is in the Hawke’s Bay Region. Wairoa is about 116 kilometers (or 72 miles) northeast of Napier on State Route 2, a trip that Google Map claims would take about 1 hour 25 minutes. My spiral-bound Kiwimaps North Island Complete Drivers Atlas predicts that that trip would take about 1 hour 50 minutes. The Atlas can be regarded as trustworthy, but I hasten to add that the imputed travel times the Atlas provides are probably predicated on the habits, practices, and experience of Kiwi drivers, not foreign drivers. Foreigners should add a ‘foreign fudge factor’ to any drive time derived from the likes of the Atlas. But I digress to the rhythms of travel. Let's go back to life in Napier.

Here in New Zealand it's late spring. I can't say that temperatures have decidedly warmed in the brief two weeks that we've been in Napier. But then seasonal variations, except in the high mountain regions, are moderated in New Zealand by its maritime climates. So the roller coaster ride of spring is somewhat less chilling and thrilling than the sort of thing one experiences in the middle of a continent. The great thing about spring is the lengthening days. That coupled with the observance of New Zealand Daylight Time insures that sunrises now are before 6 AM and sunsets after 8 PM at Napier's latitude (39.41 °S).

For Kiwis in school the exhilaration of spring is matched by the prospect of the school year's coming to an end. The school-year will be over by mid-December. Napier has four high schools, three of them state schools and one private: Taradale High School (a coeducational high school), Napier Boys' High School, Napier Girls' High School, and Sacred Heart College (a Catholic girls' high school). There are numerous intermediate and primary schools. Nearby here in the Ahuriri district, where we live, we have a primary school, the Port Ahuriri School, and up on Napier Hill there's another, Napier Central School.

3.G Entrance to Port Ahuriri School

3.F Entrance to Napier Central School

For the larger community, spring ushers in the main tourist season. Almost all the cruise ships that come calling arrive in the period from November until early April, though a few oddballs may arrive in October and May. About sixty or so cruise ships call on Napier during the cruise season. The primary attractions for the cruise tourists are the nearby wineries and Napier's Art Deco ambiance, subjects that I'm likely to turn to in future posts.

As for the sporting seasons, cricket is regarded as a summer sport but—no surprise—league play has already begun. There are several cricket leagues of interest to Kiwis, the most exalted being that to which the Blackcaps belong. The Blackcaps play against national teams from Australia, India, Pakistan, and so forth. Football or soccer is a winter sport, again with a pyramid of men's and women's leagues, the national top spots being capped by the All Whites (men's soccer) and Football Ferns (women's soccer).

The top of the sporting heap is occupied by rugby—or 'footy' as Kiwis call it—and the top of the top is occupied by the All Blacks, whose very name plays a role in baptizing New Zealand teams in other sports, as the names 'Blackcaps' and 'All Whites' might suggest. As it happens, the All Blacks met the Argentina Pumas in a match at Napier's Maclean Stadium in September 2014. Obviously, Napier was proud to host this match and Air New Zealand, an All Blacks sponsor, was happy to promote the event—an easy sell in New Zealand. Here's a video from the June 2014 'selling' event in Napier.

And here below is a video of the outset of the All Blacks vs Pumas match. An All Blacks match couldn't get off to a proper start without the performance of a war haka.

The local rugby team is the Hawke's Bay Magpies. Unfortunately, the professional rugby season will just be getting underway about the time Jean and I are slated to leave in February 2015.

The Christian liturgical season of Advent will soon be underway but, as is the case in the USA, retailers are touting their wares as requisites of a proper celebration of Christmas, a celebration with a decidedly Santa Claus cast to it. That's not surprising. But it is surprising that even here in the Southern Hemisphere Santa Claus begins his Christmas journeys from the North Pole.

It remains to be seen what the Christmas season casts for religiously faithful Kiwis. This Christmas Day marks the 200th anniversary of the preaching of the Christian gospel in New Zealand. A pan-denomination effort, the Hope Project, is underway in part to mark this occasion and in part to stimulate a re-evangelization of the country. May that effort prove fruitful!

By reason of the International Date Line and New Zealand's occupying the first time zone to the west of the date line, the Waiapu Anglican Cathedral of St John the Evangelist (as the church's website notes) is the first cathedral in the world to greet each new day. Jean and I will probably be there to greet the onset of Christmas. And meanwhile, like other Kiwis, we will attend to our daily rounds. It is a blessing to be able to attend to those rounds in a land at peace and free of persecution.

Warm regards,
Tim (& Jean)