Napier, New Zealand

'CELEBRATING ART DECO'

We arrived in the morning to rain in Napier. The locals were happy and thanked the ship for bringing them rain. All world cruisers were invited to the 3 pm surprise party in Napier. All we were told was we were going to be picked up by buses and driven somewhere for a surprise.

The other cruisers, who are only taking short segments of the cruise, went ashore for their tours. The World Cruisers were picked up by many many buses since there were approximately 242 of us, and driven through the town of Napier. Unfortunately, with the rain coming down on the bus windows, I was not able to take many photos of the town. The day we arrived, was the starting date of Napier's "Art Deco Weekend Event" which means the locals get dressed in clothes of the 1930s.The old antique cars were pulled out of the garages and paraded around the town. While being driven around the town, you would see people dressed up having coffee outside and it felt as if you were in a time warp.

Napier suffered a severe earth quake of the 7.8 reictor scale in the 1930s and the quake devastated the town causing hundreds of deaths. The town folk decided to rebuild the city to make it sturdier in case of another earthquake and chose to do it in the Art Deco style.

Today, Napier and South Beach, Miami, are considered to be the two best preserved Art Deco towns and in 2007, Napier was nominated for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. the first cultural site in New Zealand to be nominated. The locals still build their new homes in this style.

We were driven around the residential areas and saw many many homes built in the Art Deco style. I remember seeing a few of the styles in Edmonton but not too many. The front of the houses are curved and have flat roofs. The downtown buildings were just beautiful. Because of the foresight of the people in the 1930s, Napier is a tourist attraction today. We were so fortunate to be here at the right time.

When we arrived at our secret destination, we were greeted by Charlie Chaplin, locals dressed in period costumes, and old vintage cars. We came into a reception area where we were served appetizers and drinks and watched dance hall girls. After we were escorted to tables surrounding a dance floor and a stage. We were seated and watched the Andrew Sisters perform, Frank Sinatra, Millers Big Band and many more stars or impersonators. It was great music from the 1930s. We had some appetizers and drinks and ice cream cones. We spent 3 hours going back in time to the dirty thirties and the seniors, including us, enjoyed the afternoon very much.

It was a neat thing for Crystal to do for us and apparently there are more surprise events to come.