Napier & Hawke’s Bay
We had two days to explore Napier and Hawke’s Bay, best known (to us anyway) for three things: wine, Napier’s Art Deco buildings, and the flooding that accompanied Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023.
Thus far, there are many things we have admired about New Zealand, for example, the landscape, the trees, and the attempt to grapple with its colonial past. Urban architecture is not one of them. There are many lovely homes, some of which we have stayed in, but town and city centre buildings have largely left us cold. Until now, that is.
Once again, we were staying with Rotarians through the Rotary International Travel and Hosting Fellowship. And once again, our hosts organised an itinerary based on our interests (we will have to up our game when we have visitors now!).
We spent the first day with Garth, whose home we were staying in, with his lovely wife. He started by taking us to Dolbel Reserve – a large area of native planting on a hill overlooking the valley. Two Rotary clubs have been planting and caring for trees here for the last 20 years.
‘How do you start a large-scale project like this with your club without scaring everyone off?’ I asked. ‘It’s simple,’ Garth replied. ‘You talk about how the club can contribute this year.’ This is the same answer Mark gave about the Kopurererua Valley Reserve. Common to that project, each year’s activities are not burdensome, but a vast amount is achieved over time.
The walk up the hill, through the young forest and over wildflower meadows was invigorating - just what I needed after the long journey south.
Knowing that Mike has a professional interest in flood management, Garth then took us on a shocking drive. Cyclone Gabrielle wreaked havoc in the Esk Valley northwest of Napier when it dropped almost 400mm of rain in 12 hours. Between a third and a quarter of the usual annual rainfall fell within 24 hours, onto ground already saturated from the previous storm. We knew about this from news bulletins at the time, but seeing the resulting devastation on the ground is another matter. Most people here live in single-storey houses in a large flat area created by a seismic uplift 90 years ago. When the waters rose, it was not necessarily easy to gain higher ground. Heading upstairs was not an option. Businesses and homes were flooded and filled or covered with silt. Harvests failed. Schools were abandoned. Homes have been permanently abandoned as the government declared some areas too high-risk to allow people to return. Imagine if that was you and your insurance company covered the building but not the land it was built on – land that is now worthless.
We stood and watched the bulldozers re-grading the valley, the dust drifting downwind.
Further upstream, in the hills, those slopes that took the brunt of the rain are covered in landslips. This is a new country geographically as well as socially. The soils are not deep, and the sandstone here is barely formed. It’s so soft that I’m surprised it even merits being called rock. In many areas, grass is the only thing that holds the hillsides together. We were told there were 80% fewer slips where trees still grow, but this part of New Zealand relies on cattle and sheep farming, so reafforestation is not a consideration.
With heavy hearts, we headed back down the hill and into Taradale in time for the Greenmeadows Rotary Club meeting, where Mike was giving a talk. Once again, we were openly welcomed, and my mood lifted as the lively evening drew on.
Art Deco Delight
In total contrast to the first day’s sightseeing, our second day was light-hearted and fun, hosted by Rotarian Ian. He started by taking us to two viewpoints on the bay to help us understand the geography of the area better. The sun was shining, and we could see the whole of the plain, which stretched for miles before hills rose behind it.
A hundred years ago, these views were very different. Napier was a tiny town developed around the base of Bluff Hill. A small port serviced inland communities. A road led across the marsh and past the inland lagoon that characterized the area.
One fateful day in 1931, everything changed. The town was shaken by an earthquake as one tectonic plate slid under another. Fire broke out and quickly spread. 161 people were killed in Napier (256 in total). As you might expect, many buildings collapsed, but there was another curious effect. The lagoon and marshes behind the town were raised by over 2.5 metres. The lagoon drained, and overnight, Napier had 2,000 additional hectares of land on which to expand.
In the next couple of years, the town was almost entirely rebuilt in the Art Deco style that was prevalent at the time. This has resulted in a unique concentration of Art Deco buildings throughout the town centre. Rather than the dull urban architecture we have come to expect from New Zealand towns, Napier sports a concentration of colourful, interesting buildings.
After a fun lunch with Lynne Trafford, a local Rotarian and radio host (listen to the later interview here - dated 25/01/2024), we joined an official tour of the architecture. The guide enlightened us on which style was which, but to some degree, I let the words wash over me as I immersed myself in the colourful reimagination of a devastated town.
Our visit was rounded off by rediscovering my love of cycling – on an electric bike across the plain. It might not have been challenging, but racing Mike along the off-road track beside the river was great fun!
I edited and uploaded this post a few weeks after visiting Napier, while sitting in a swanky hotel room with the curtains drawn so that curious passersby couldn’t tell which room we were in. Our plans for this part of our tour did not involve being cautious about who could see us, and certainly did not involve holing up in an expensive hotel until we could get the train out and escape Kaikoura. We should have been out watching whales instead, but it’s not an adventure if everything goes to plan, is it? More in a future edition!
PS We’re not in trouble with the police!
PPS We’re out of harm’s way now.