Weekend in Napier:
a premier destination
for couples

Ahuriri Estuary Walk @milesteppin

Ahuriri estuary walking track Ahuriri Estuary Walking Track: Napier area, Hawke’s Bay region is going to get the taste buds working with a leisurely flat stroll at dusk to check out the local birdlife. Wading birds include shags, kingfishers, grey herons, royal spoonbills and pied stilts, estuary dwellers and the life between the water and land is on full view. Your walk follows the footsteps of people over hundreds of years harvesting the bounty of the sea and land. Up until 1931 earthquake the area was a large tidal inlet which was immediately raised 2.7 metres above sea level draining 5510 acres of the lagoon.

Original wharf structures are high above the waterline – a measure of the severity of the 1931 earthquake. A boardwalk bridge leads onto the flats adjoining the tidal inlet where carved pou pou (or potokowa) posts stand guard over the estuary.

NOTE: spring tides can flood parts of the boardwalk. Signposts will guide you if this is the case. Pandora for track details from Napier City Council.

Directions:

From hotel to start of the walk.

East Pier Hotel to Ahuriri walkway.

Start on Humber St car park, off Pandora Road.  Popular with swimmers and windsurfers, Pandora Pond, the beach to the right, is also a launching point for kayaks and waka.

@Three doors up

DETOUR: Cycle your way through the weekend

Takaro Trails, Day Tours operate self-guided cycle tours, mountain biking packages and bike hire from their Ahuriri base. Tours range in duration from a few hours to several days. Arrange with Takaro Trails to deposit e-bikes or manual bikes at the East Pier hotel for your weekend use.

Takaro allows visitors to explore the Hawke’s Bay Trails at your own pace. Choose from the following self-guided day tours along our easy, flat cycle pathways to world class wineries or just ride to relax and enjoy the amazing Hawke’s Bay outdoors. Takaro organises everything you need for you – book a pick-up from your accommodation so you can go a bit further in your day.

DINNER is your treat for the weekend, or perhaps the first of many culinary delights. Three Doors Up – Licensed Bistro.

Atmospheric with cosy club chairs inviting quiet conversations, encouraging the diners to linger over the menu and to relax into their weekend in Napier.

“Step into a little piece of Europe in the midst of Ahuriri, Napier.Established in January 2008, Anj and her team are proud to celebrate their 12th year in business. Together with Head Chef, Catherine Boyes and 2nd Chef Courtney Booth, we boast almost 60 years in hospitality. We offer honest, wholesome food made with the freshest of local ingredients.”

@Three doors up

Ahuriri National Tobacco building @Wikiwand

Art Deco exploration is a must when visiting Napier. You will have stopped by the Ahuriri National Tobacco building to glimpse the combination of art nouveau curved doorway tipped with roses adorning an art deco sunburst. It is an elaborate confection of Art Deco now a photo favourite. Moving onto Napier’s waterfront your Art Deco exploration will discover the Soundshell public pavilion and the nearby statue of Pania of the Reef, (1950’s European view of Maori cultural narratives). Pania has echoes of Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid. The surrounding gardens continue to be faithfully planted in the art deco style. The marine parade majestic Norfolk pines are pencil lines down the parade, offering a counterpoint to the Soundshell curved raised public art space.

The Napier CBD ANZ BANK and its neighbour were demolished in 1983. The loss of these two buildings helped to catalyse the preservation movement in Napier. The new building which replaced them was remodelled in 1995, 12 years after it was built, to make it more harmonious with its Art Deco era neighbours.

Maori-inspired detailing inside the ASB Bank @The west Australian

FORMER HOTEL CENTRAL (E A WILLIAMS, 1932) This is perhaps Napier’s most refined Art Deco building. Note the Egyptian style lotus capitals and falcon emblems on the columns of the main balcony, the delicate sunbursts and the zigzag borders. In Dalton Street is the entrance to the upper floor with tiled steps, decorative plasterwork, the original sign saying ‘Licensed to Sell Spiritous Liquors’, the pressed metal verandah ceiling and the one remaining original shop front on the right. Most of the partly empty upper floor is still original, with splendid plasterwork and glazing” … As described in the Art Deco brochure. To purchase self guided walks brochures, click here.
OPTION Private guided Art Deco walk

Art Deco-style statue, A Wave Time, by Mark Whyte @The west Australian

Private Guided Walk of Ahuriri exploring the Art Deco history and the industrial past of the area. The tour will tailor the walk to your pace and your particular interests, making this a unique and highly personalised experience. 1 hour and 1.5 hour walks available. Advance bookings are essential for all private tours with a minimum of 24 hours notice. The Art Deco Charitable Trust manages the Napier historic heritage walking tours and classic car or vintage car tours.
All tours include a complimentary viewing of our 20 minute earthquake movie “The Day that Changed the Bay”

DID YOU KNOW? The colours of the new Napier were a major talking point. The town was very colourful compared with the brick, stone, concrete and cream painted wood in other cities. The colours were achieved by the new technique of mixing metallic oxides with the cement, which gave a range that included pink, blue, green, chartreuse and yellow, but more usually red/ brown, ochre, buff or biscuit, similar to the colours of the paving slabs in Emerson Street. … from Art Deco brochure

VISIT DURATION half day.

Opossum World museum @TripAdvisor

Opossum World is a museum, taxidermy displays and a diorama of stuffed possums explaining the possum birth process. The unambiguous narrative is possums are terrible for New Zealand flora and fauna. The introduced animal, with no natural predators is steadily munching its way through kiwi chick eggs, birds and anything that gets in its way of consuming 21,000 tonnes of foliage a night.

According to Opossum World there are 20 possums to every New Zealander. If you enjoy Willy Nelson’s folksy tunes as you’ve got a treat with a taxidermy Possum choir singing ‘On the Road Again.’ A definitive roadkill song just for possums. Australians just block your ears and enjoy the retail store.

Possum fur, combined with merino wool is deliciously cosy, soft and remarkably cuddly. It is tactile and you want to run your hands through the thick softness. The retail shop is fabulous with all things possum for sale, together with information about nocturnal bush monsters ravaging the native forests. Our visitor dollars are being spent on a very good cause.

VISIT DURATION: 1 – 2 HOURS

Street art in Napier Seawalls project @2SewTextiles -Brenda Wood

View the Seawalls street art, a project created to help bring the beauty and the plight of the world’s oceans into streets around the globe via art and activism. “Seawalls project took place in two stages: the first, in March 2016, saw national and international artists transform 29 blank walls in the CBD and Ahuriri.

Their work poignantly addressed such issues as over-fishing, plastics and pollution, global climate change and ha

e an iconic feature of the city, bringing the immensity and fragility of the world’s oceans onto our streets – and into our minds.” Napier City Council statement Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans.

VISIT DURATION: 2 – 3 HOURS

Criterion Hotel @The west Australian

ART DECO FANS TARADALE IS WORTH A DETOUR

And the shopping has a local village atmosphere. The main shopping street is a mixture of second hand stores, fashion boutiques, deli stores, bookshops and shoe shops together with cafes and an adjoining supermarket. For visitors driving from Napier a brief look at the Art Deco  History of Napier Municipal Theatre » Napier Municipal Theatre is a worth a detour through the suburb of Onekawa.

ART DECO BUILDING

Buildings destroyed by the earthquake were rebuilt in Art Deco style architecture.

• The original Taradale Town Hall was destroyed in the Napier earthquake. The Town Board raised a £2500 loan for the rebuilding of the Hall. The re-opening was held over 3 days starting on the 27th July 1932 when the new hall, built in the new Art Deco style, was officially opened by W. E. Barnard M.P. concluded on the Friday with a grand ball.
• Check out the current National Bank building and the square art deco clock on the top of the building.
• Criterion Art Deco Backpackers is Hawkes Bay premier hostel. The Criterion is Napier’s largest Spanish Mission / Art Deco style building. Built as a luxury hotel in 1932 and it is one of the most photographed Art Deco buildings in Napier. The Criterion continues to offer accommodation to backpackers.
• Taradale Hotel is now a Macdonalds. The only Macdonalds located in a heritage art deco building.
• The Taradale and Districts Soldiers’ Memorial, survived the earthquake and is still in it’s original location just down the road from our motel location on Gloucester Street. The memorial was completed in 1923 after a £9,000 loan was approved. The loan also paid for the widening of Gloucester Street, the construction of a women’s rest, and the purchase of Taradale Park

VISIT DURATION: 1 – 2 hours

Waimarama Maori Tours @escape

A morning spent immersed in the Maori heritage of the Hawke’s Bay Tours | Waimarama Maori Tours | New Zealand Tours, “Experience real New Zealand Maori culture with a unique insight into a day in the life of a Maori elder. Kaumatua are the elders in Maori society, and are respected for their knowledge of tribal history and traditions. They are the keepers of the accumulated history of our people. Their guidance is often sought on all manner of topics in daily life as well as ceremonial matters of Maori tradition. There is an excellent gift shop with one of a kind crafted artisan goods.

Waimarama Maori Tours

Celestial Compass @croadie

You will enter the door as a stranger and leave as a friend. Our guides are elders from our small coastal community of Waimarama where they all still live today. This very special tour gives you unfettered access to the world of Maori rarely seen by outsiders.
Our guides are knowledgeable and articulate and interesting story tellers. With humour and grace they will share their personal insights with you.

“On your way to Waimarama, our coastal village, you will visit the Celestial Compass and learn how our ancestors journeyed from one side of the earth to the other using ancient navigational tools.” This experience is recommended as it involves personal interaction with an individual who is immersed in their culture, it is in depth laced with the emotion of belonging to the land that is visited. A very special tour for New Zealanders as well as overseas visitors.” as described by Waimarama Maori Tours.

DURATION: 6 HOURS INCLUDING LUNCH
Location: Napier to Waimarama distance 45 km 44 minutes

It’s time to return home, back to the working week. Perhaps you’ve time for a Napier cycle tour to get a last glimpse of Art Deco Napier, the waterfront and marine parade. Or you have a few moments to check out the local shops. Napier is a great family destination with glorious beaches, Cape Kidnappers and the gannets, paddle boarding and safe shallow estuaries for children to swim in. There are plenty of attractions you did not have time for including the historic Napier prison, the Napier Museum as well as an exploration of the wider area that is Hawkes Bay.

Cape Kidnappers @Holland America