Our second week in Napier has been a busy one with a variety of activities, including biking, hiking, walking tour, museum visit and animal rescue, all while dealing with 30 degree temperatures most days.
We woke up on Monday morning to see a furry little creature on our deck. He didn't seem at all shy, so we suspected that he was somebody's pet. Marlene gave him a carrot stick and he hung around for the rest of the day. Late in the afternoon, two young girls came looking for their lost rabbit, and with the aid of another carrot stick I was able to return the squirming creature to its owners.
Rabbit on our deck
Biking has been a frequent pastime this week. We have been north to Bay View, south to Clive and West to Puketapu. The main path along the seafront is concrete, but there are a myriad of other trails, mostly made of lime sand, which packs down fairly hard and makes a good riding surface. It seems that we can always find a destination that has a place to eat and drink - Bay View has the Snapper Cafe at the Napier Beach Holiday Park, Clive has the Zepplin Cafe, and Puketapu has the Puketapu pub (I bet your local doesn't have an annual pig hunting competition).
Decision point along the estuary
Marlene among the gum trees around tidal estuary
Maori Canoes at Ahuriri
My sister Margaret came to visit on Wednesday and she left this morning. She stayed at Denzil's house, but we spent a lot of time with her and the cousins. On Thursday we did a walk in the Tangoio Nature Reserve, which took us through native bush to the Te Ana Falls and Tangoio Falls. It was a very pleasant couple of hours out of the city and mainly in the shade.
Tangoio Falls (20 metres high)
On Friday, Marlene and I biked to Puketapu, to meet Margaret and the cousins for lunch at the pub, where we enjoyed a great meal on a shaded patio - I chose the roast pork dinner and struggled to finish it. The ride to Puketapu was about 20 km, and faced with a freshening northerly wind, we were happy to strap the bikes on the back of Maureen's car for the trip home.
Friday evening we took a guided art deco walking tour around downtown Napier, which told us more about the earthquake and the rebuilding of the town. In the photo below, the low stone wall at the edge of the park area was the seawall prior to 1931, and it was built to stop the waves from washing away Marine Parade. In the earthquake, the city rose two metres, leaving the ocean much lower and further out from the road. Debris from the fallen buildings was piled on the newly exposed foreshore, and once the rebuild of the city buildings was completed, the whole foreshore was turned into the park that we see today.
The pre-1931 seawall
The 1931 earthquake was immediately followed by a fire which destroyed most of the buildings that had not fallen in the quake, as most were of wooden construction. The fire burned for days as there was no water supply to use to put it out. Only a handful of buildings survived, notably buildings made of reinforced concrete. Responsibility for the rebuild of the city of Napier was placed in the hands of two commissioners, whose word was law, and they had the city rebuilt in two years. The commissioners mandated that all new buildings must be of reinforced concrete construction, but the facade could be any style. As art deco was popular at the time, the buildings were constructed in the art deco style.
Our guide was quick to point out that art deco simply means art decoration, and can be applied to any building, including the more classical styles and the Spanish Mission style popular at the time. I have posted a few photo's below to show the art decoration on various buildings.
former home of Bank of New Zealand
The Masonic Hotel
Spanish Mission Style
Gleeson's Munster Chambers
When my grandmother, Mary Gleeson, first arrived in New Zealand, she lived and worked in the Victoria Hotel in Napier, which was owned by her uncle, Patrick Gleeson, and managed by her cousin, Catherine Gunn. By 1931, Paddy Gleeson was long dead, and Mary had married and thankfully had moved away, avoiding the devastation of the earthquake. Paddy's son continued to live in Napier, and the Munster Chambers in the photo above was his place of business at the time of the earthquake.
On Saturday we visited the Hawkes Bay Museum, where we listened to first hand accounts of the 1931 earthquake, by 4 survivors....it was fascinating to hear of their experiences.
And so ends another great week. The weather is forecasted to be a little cooler in the coming week, with rain showers likely, which would be a welcome reprieve.
No comments:
Post a Comment