Napier Art Deco Weekend Part Two - Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Alright, now that we've gotten the backstory out of the way, here's what actually happened at Art Deco. Once I'd come to the conclusion about my footwear (or lack thereof) and changed back into my civvies, I got back in contact with Henry and Nikki for meeting up. Because they are truly gorgeous people, they arranged it so that I could leave all of my stuff in their private room Friday morning so that I wouldn't have to worry about check-in times. As luck had it, our rooms were right next to each other in Archie's Bunker, so this was much easier than originally expected. I met up with them for hang-out time and drinks Thursday night and then retired back to the Criterion for some much-needed rest.
I think the only downside about Napier is this: it's loud. Or, rather, the downtown area can be a bit busy first thing in the morning with various cars, street sweepers, garbage trucks, and random people walking by waking you up throughout the night. Fortunately, the frequent wake-ups did get me to start the day at a decent hour rather than turn over and get some more sleep. I had to meet Henry and Nikki well before 9 in order to get to the Tea with the Stars event at 10 (turns out that we all booked the same thing without knowing it), so it was nice to be all ready to go with a 7am get-up. As I mentioned before, the Criterion was very cool in putting out loads of free food for breakfast, so I took a generous portion to tide me over before heading the two or three blocks to Archie's Bunker.
The guy at the front desk was helpful enough, but it was difficult to get the point across that I was just checking in as a formality to get my key so that I could go upstairs to meet my friends. Henry finally came down to clear up the issue and escort me up to where they were both getting ready. They knew about my shoe situation, so Nikki graciously allowed me to borrow her flip flops until I could get a replacement pair. Once we were all dressed in our outfits and had everything that we would need, we set off for Holt Planetarium.
...which no one knew how to get to. I think this exhausting, confusing, and overall hilarious adventure was one of the main highlights of my trip because it was so utterly unique. Let me summarize. According to the map in the iSite, Holt Planetarium is just outside of town on Marine Parade (the main beach front area), past the aquarium and the main city center. It looked like a bit of a walk, but nothing that couldn't be accomplished in half an hour. With that in mind, Henry, Nikki, and I set off down the beach in costume and took our time to indulge curious tourists in impromptu photoshoots, enjoying the bright, sunny weather as we went. At about 9:40, I took the map out to compare our estimated position with the small dot of our destination and wasn't overly concerned about timing. At 9:45, we had passed the aquarium and had a clear view of the suburbs in front of us but could not make out anything even faintly resembling a planetarium. We were thinking of something like a big, dome-shaped building that could be easily identified from a distance, not someone's house or something. A little bit wary now, we pressed forward.
Our scenery for the beginning of a long walk
By 10:00, it was clear that we weren't going to make the Tea with the Stars event on time, but we weren't really that concerned. We were still having fun chatting about random stuff and laughing at our combined ridiculousness. By that point, Nikki and I had given up all pretenses of being in-character and were going barefoot down the main street. Me because I wasn't used to flip flops in general and was about two sizes smaller than Nikki for her shoes to work for me, and her because the flip flops in question tended to cut into the skin after about 15 minutes. So there we were, completely lost and holding our shoes in our hands as Henry kept bursting out into old show tunes. It was so absurd that we didn't mind the detour. So we walked further...and further...until the factory that had been way in the distance when we first started looked suddenly close. At that point, it was well after 10:30 and we were pretty sure it was a no-go. They wanted to just turn around and go back, but I insisted on asking someone for directions anyway. We all had a feeling that we had overshot it some time ago, but I still wanted to know where it was. We ended up stopping this one very nice woman who was collecting seashells for help, and she turned out to be a local. Yup, we had definitely gone too far, and would we like a lift back into town? Yes, yes please. I love meeting cool people on the road. She lugged her haul of shells back over to her car, and then we climbed into the back. Since it was about 10:45 at that point, she asked if we wanted to try and see the planetarium anyway, just to see if we could catch part of the show. We figured, 'yeah, sure, what the heck' and agreed to let her drive us there.
Then our giggles took a decidedly hysterical tilt once she kept driving, and driving, and driving for a good five minutes or so. Yes, we had really gone that far. Apparently we were supposed to turn right at a hidden street and keep going until we saw an all-boys school, which wasn't on the map at all. The planetarium is actually just a regular building attached to the aforementioned school. Huh. Well, good to know. So we thanked her profusely and went inside to see if we could still catch any of it. Turns out that our timing couldn't have been better because the entire place is run by just one guy, and he was about to shut the doors for the second half of the presentation - which was actually the coolest part. He had spent the first hour leading the group through a slide show of various celestial objects and talking about the earthquake, so the part about the stargazing was just about to begin.
So we limped inside and found about four or five older couples already sitting in these cushy chairs inside. The planetarium basically consisted of three rooms: one main display room with lots of educational posters and memorabilia, one movie room where they show slides and movies, and the observatory itself, where everyone gathers in a semi-circle around this machine and recline backwards to look at the ceiling. That’s where we all went right away. Apparently he had just turned off the lights and was just about to launch into his charting of the night sky when we arrived, so it was perfect timing.
The reason that I wanted to go to the event in the first place is because it was supposed to be a demonstration of the night of the 1931 earthquake, with all of the stars and planets appearing as they did back then. Plus I’m a total nerd about astronomy stuff. If it wasn’t for all of the math and angles involved, I probably would’ve pursued it a bit more in school. Anyways, he dimmed the lights and set up the sky with the projector, and it was impressively realistic despite the fact that the thing was built back in the ’70s or ’80s. I won’t go into all of the details about the different constellations because I sense that I’ve already lost a few people just rambling already, but there was one cool piece of trivia that I picked up. You guys know what the NZ flag looks like? Well, I always knew that it basically looked like Australia’s except that it had four stars instead of six and left it at that. Turns out that those four stars are supposed to be the Southern Cross constellation that hangs in the Southern Hemisphere in place of Polaris, our North Star. That’s how people navigate at night down here. So NZ has the four stars of the Cross itself, and Australia has the same thing plus the two extra stars to represent its six original states. There’s my astronomy lesson for the day.
The whole thing was pretty cool, and the guy was very generous with his time. After the presentation, he offered us tea and scones with jam and butter and gave a little impromptu lecture about whatever questions we had. I’d say it was well worth the time and effort it took to get out there. I think Henry and Nikki enjoyed it as well, if only to have a cool place to rest their feet for a while.
The gardens
After the planetarium, we made our way slowly back to the city center with our shoes still in hand. By that point, it was about lunchtime, and the streets were definitely filling up with people in costume. We decided to take a little pit stop for coffees and lunch and then headed over to the main gardens by the beach. My God, they were so amazing. The pictures don’t really do the area justice. Nikki and I shamelessly dunked our feet in the fountain and sat there for a while, soaking up the sunshine and enjoying the cool water. Our feet were pretty much black after trudging all up and down the streets of Napier, so it was a welcome reprieve. Meanwhile, Henry did an exceptional job of scoping out the best places to stand and did his best to look suitably impressive with the backlighting.
Taking a break to wash our feet and hang out
Then we had the bright idea to try miniature golf. There was an actual event going on for it later, but we figured that it would be super crowded during the official time, so we decided to catch it while it was relatively quiet. Plus we got a discount for doing it in costume. The whole affair is a bit of a sore subject for Henry, so I’ll just say that we were all pretty evenly matched until I pulled ahead of Nikki in the end and Henry settled for a respectable third. I did, however, acquire a new injury to my already-destroyed feet in the form of a sunburn across the top. I didn’t really feel them burning until it was already too late. So that just made it all the more crucial to find suitable footwear.
Messing around and miniature golf
We agreed to go our separate ways for that very reason - I went off in search of shoes that actually fit, and they went out to hang a bit on their own with the understanding that we would all meet up again for dinner. I changed back into my street clothes and scoured all of Napier for a pair of plain, size 8 ½ high heels, but the venture was decidedly more involved than I had first expected. If they were in my size, they were $70 or more, if they were cheap, they were designed for someone half my size. Oh well. In the end, I ended up paying $20 for the last pair of affordable shoes in town, only to realize later that night that my feet were too abused to fit in anything less durable than tennis shoes. So that’s what I did for the duration of the entire trip - wore my black street shoes underneath the dress. It kind of broke the mood a bit, but I could actually walk down the street without clenching my teeth the whole way. Wow, I just ranted for way longer than I wanted to about my feet. Back to more interesting things.
More cool pics to make up for my boring narrative
After acquiring a then-suitable pair of shoes and exploring around a bit, I rendezvoused with Henry and Nikki for some very nice fish and chips down by the beach. Right around that time, I also met up with a girl named Kim, a cool California girl who happened to be sleeping in the bunk below mine at Archie’s. We clicked right away and made it a point to hang out over the course of the weekend. She tagged along with all of us when we changed into our evening wear for the Big Sounds Tonight concert at the Sound Shell. Unfortunately, because of the state of my feet, I couldn’t really do much dancing - or standing - but it was fun to watch all of the couples down at the front of the stage. My God, people in Napier can dance like nobody’s business. It was hard to take pictures of all of them because the lighting wasn’t especially great, but every single person was at the professional level for swing, jitterbug, and any other kind of dance from that era. Pretty amazing.
Fish and Chips
Amazing park that I found
Big Sounds Tonight
And that was Friday. Saturday was a little more low-key with lots of hanging and exploring. Nikki and Henry slept in after lots of drinking down at the concert the night before, so Kim and I went downtown to cruise through the streets. First we did the Traction Trundle at 10am, which basically consisted of a fifteen minute ride in a cart pulled by an old-fashioned tractor. That was pretty fun and relaxing for the first item of the day. Then we went down to the costume shop to get Kim a hat and boa to blend in with the rest of the crowd and shopped around on Emerson Street. All up and down the town, there were bands set up for impromptu performances on the street. In the course of ten minutes, we passed a jazz band, an all-girl a capella group, a barber shop quartet, a woman belting out epic love ballads, and another swing band. There were people crowded around each one, and, once again, all of the dancers were bloody incredible.
Traction Trundle, Posing, and Coolness
By the time we reached the end of Emerson, the car parade was just about to get started, so we found some places along the sidewalk to watch. They were all polished to a very high shine and decked out for the public show. You could tell that the owners lived for this one day of the year to show off their babies. I was just impressed by many cars there were. I mean, the parade started at noon, and it was still going strong at 1pm when we finally pulled away to get some food. Then it was time to go our separate ways again. I had tickets for a Celtic Concert at 2:30 down in St. Paul’s Church, so I wanted to had down in that direction before it got too late. While I was waiting, I climbed up to the top of this hill and got some great overhead shots of the city.
People getting ready for car parade
Napier from above
The actual concert was pretty impressive with this one group doing songs pretty much nonstop for two hours. I dunno, I’ve always like bagpipes - I guess it’s one of the few things that I remember in a positive light from my time in Mr. Caspers’ art class. They had a lot of Scottish dancing, singing, and music all around with a few random acts of people standing up to recite old jokes. The only downside was that I was definitely the youngest person there, and I got the feeling that nearly everyone else in the room knew each other somehow. There was a lot of, “Alright, now I know everyone knows this song, so sing along if you know it!” kind of stuff going on to songs I had never heard of, but I managed not to stand out too much. At least I recognized Scotland the Brave and Amazing Grace, so I wasn’t a complete lost cause.
Celtic Concert
Once the concert was finished, I met up with Kim for the 5pm scheduled tour around Napier at the iSite. For some reason, we were the only ones that showed up, so it was just us and main guide. He was a very nice, older guy named Barry, and he definitely knew his stuff about Art Deco architecture and history. He showed us little details that we had missed about certain buildings and filled us in on some more back story that we hadn’t heard mentioned in the brochures before. We went all over the city with him, so it wasn’t until about 7pm that we were able to go get some food and then change back into our evening clothes.
Nikki and Henry were set to go out on the catamaran for dinner later, but we made sure to set up a time to meet up with them after they were done. While they were off doing that, Kim and I went to scope out the Twilight Toe Tap down the street and were treated to some more awesome dancing. It’s hard to write about the whole night because it was just a vibe of relaxed entertainment that’s difficult to describe to someone who wasn’t there. At some point, Henry and Nikki rejoined us for some more hang-out time on the town. I guess the catamaran had been alright, but the waves were so big that everyone got a little sea sick. So they didn’t really eat a lot of the food that they paid so much for. They were happy to make up for it with coffee and wine, though.
Sunday was, if possible, even more relaxing with almost every planned event free of charge to the public. I got up early to walk down to Countdown for some picnic supplies. Henry and Nikki had already bought loads of food for the Gatsby Picnic at 1pm, and I felt a little guilty mooching off of them all the time, so I made a point of chipping in with bread, ginger beer, and snacks. Countdown actually pretty far out of town, so by the time I got back, it was almost time for the Soap Box Derby to start. I barely had time to get changed into my costume, get everyone together, and find a nice spot down by the starting line.
Soap Box Derby. So cute.
Okay, this was just adorable. Basically, these families had been working on these little cars for the entire year, and each one had its own personality. Some were like little go-carts with modified bike parts for brakes, others were more like wagons with pieces of rope for steering, and some of them were really out there and creative, like one shaped like a giant wine bottle. If anyone’s seen World’s Fastest Indian with Anthony Hopkins, one little girl was riding a bike with that kind of design, and another girl was completely sealed inside the bottom of a rocket ship with her feet sticking out the back. You could tell all of the parents thought it was really cute, too, and the announcers made it a point to crack jokes with all sorts of observations about the cars.
Race about to start and people watching from balconies
Once the race was set to start, they all lined up at the top of the hill outside the Masonic Hotel, and one of the adults gave them a great big push to get them all the way down to the finish line at the bottom. There’s something sweet and endearing about a mom or dad loading their kid up in a suspiciously-designed piece of metal and hurling them down a hill with a yell of, “Have fun, honey!” Surprisingly, there were only two crashes for the whole day. One was just a matter of a kid hitting the side of the wall separating her from the spectators and having to be carried back up to the start, but one was actually pretty gnarly. For one race, the parents and kids switched places, and I think the weight was a little off for holding the mom as the driver. The whole thing flipped upside down while the husband was still pushing from the back, and he nearly fell on top of her before twisting sideways at the last second. That one could have been fairly bad, but the whole thing was shaken off in true New Zealand spirit, and it all continued on.
The Derby went until about noon, so we had roughly an hour until the picnic to walk around a bit. Kim was off on a half-day wine tour, so she was set to meet us later. In the meantime, Henry, Nikki, and I went to check out the elaborate tents that had been set up along the Upper and Lower lawns. Some people got really into it with all sorts of decorations and fine china to highlight the food. I think there was supposed to be a competition later for the best ones. Since we weren’t quite that organized, we just found a spot of dry grass just behind the wall of the Sound Shell and set up our picnic there. Henry and Nikki had made chicken rice and sandwiches, and there were all sorts of little snacks like crackers and cheese to keep us more than happy. I was starving, but even I couldn’t do any more after the first two or three portions.
Gatsby Picnic area, our lunch
After about an hour, the air show started up right in front of us with Those Magnificent Men doing all sorts of stunts along the beach. That was pretty cool. They had been showing off throughout the weekend, but it was hard to catch them in the middle of other events. Kim showed up just in time to watch the end of it, and we all just chilled there until about 3pm, eating and talking. Finally, we went to check out the Dry Boat Racing down by the fountain. I had thought that it would involve actual boats like, you know, in the water, but apparently it was just a bunch of kids in canoes running as fast they could along the beach in rubber boots. It was still pretty cute, but not quite as entertaining as the Derby from that morning. Again, there were a few close calls with people nearly getting hit right in the face by other boats, but it all worked out fine in the end.
Air Show and Dry Boat Racing
Right around 4pm, the perfect weather finally came to an end, and it started to sprinkle a bit. We were actually very lucky that the sun lasted for so long, because the forecast had predicted rain throughout the weekend. And that was pretty much the end of Art Deco. Nothing was really scheduled in the program after 3 o’ clock, and no one wanted to stay out in the rain, so we kind of called it a day. We sat to watch one last midday jazz performance down at the Sound Shell before Kim had to go her separate way. She’s working on an internship down in Wellington, so she had fly back down there for work. The rest of us went back to Archie’s to change out of our clothes and pack up for the return home.
Last minute dancing
As I said, nothing was really planned for Sunday night, but I decided to go back to the Planetarium for one last hurrah while Henry and Nikki went to a country western show. The guy - Gary Sparks, I later found out - had run into us earlier in the day and had invited us to come back for the 7pm showing if we had time. Since I literally had nothing else to do, I figured that might be kind of fun. So I set off in the rain and walked all the way out there again. It was much easier the second time with good sneakers and a waterproof coat to keep me comfortable. Now, the planetarium was supposed to be open 7-9 for the public, and I got there just before 7 for the main presentation. It goes without saying that I had way too much fun because I didn’t leave until one in the morning. Yeah. What basically happened was he led the group through the film and nightly stargazing demonstration like usual, but then we got to talking about other things. A nice German couple wandered in at about 8:30, and, rather than turn them away, he let them in to show them some things while they were there. I got sucked in as well, and before we knew it, it was just the four of us sitting in the observatory with a bottle of wine between us and the sounds of rain outside. Pretty awesome. The guy was incredibly nice and didn’t seem too concerned about the late hour at all. He said he’d rather hang out and chat with interesting people than go home in the middle of a storm, so we just stayed there talking with him. There came a point where he offered to let us crash on the floor for the night, but I knew that it would be better for me to sleep back at Archies. After all, I had already paid to stay there for the night. So the German couple gave me a lift back to town after some nice goodbyes, and I got a few hours of sleep before the big travel day home.
Monday was pretty much just packing and last-minute details. I had breakfast down at a great little café on Emerson Street and ending up running into the same guy who did the tour for us. Then it was time to say goodbye to Napier. It was sad because the entire place had pretty much returned to normal overnight, and all of the costumed visitors had gone by then. It was definitely a fun experience, though, and I would recommend it to anyone passing through New Zealand in mid-February.
My breakfast
And that’s it for Napier. Right now, I’m traveling South on the Stray bus, so it might be difficult to post things very often. I’ll probably be doing a lot of things everyday, too, so it’ll be hard to keep up to date, but I’ll do my best. Right now, I’m in Tongariro National Park after climbing Lord of the Rings’ Mount Doom yesterday, so I should have some pictures up for that next. Thanks for baring with all of my mindless chatter - I know I tend to ramble on a bit. See you all again in a week or two!
I think the only downside about Napier is this: it's loud. Or, rather, the downtown area can be a bit busy first thing in the morning with various cars, street sweepers, garbage trucks, and random people walking by waking you up throughout the night. Fortunately, the frequent wake-ups did get me to start the day at a decent hour rather than turn over and get some more sleep. I had to meet Henry and Nikki well before 9 in order to get to the Tea with the Stars event at 10 (turns out that we all booked the same thing without knowing it), so it was nice to be all ready to go with a 7am get-up. As I mentioned before, the Criterion was very cool in putting out loads of free food for breakfast, so I took a generous portion to tide me over before heading the two or three blocks to Archie's Bunker.
The guy at the front desk was helpful enough, but it was difficult to get the point across that I was just checking in as a formality to get my key so that I could go upstairs to meet my friends. Henry finally came down to clear up the issue and escort me up to where they were both getting ready. They knew about my shoe situation, so Nikki graciously allowed me to borrow her flip flops until I could get a replacement pair. Once we were all dressed in our outfits and had everything that we would need, we set off for Holt Planetarium.
...which no one knew how to get to. I think this exhausting, confusing, and overall hilarious adventure was one of the main highlights of my trip because it was so utterly unique. Let me summarize. According to the map in the iSite, Holt Planetarium is just outside of town on Marine Parade (the main beach front area), past the aquarium and the main city center. It looked like a bit of a walk, but nothing that couldn't be accomplished in half an hour. With that in mind, Henry, Nikki, and I set off down the beach in costume and took our time to indulge curious tourists in impromptu photoshoots, enjoying the bright, sunny weather as we went. At about 9:40, I took the map out to compare our estimated position with the small dot of our destination and wasn't overly concerned about timing. At 9:45, we had passed the aquarium and had a clear view of the suburbs in front of us but could not make out anything even faintly resembling a planetarium. We were thinking of something like a big, dome-shaped building that could be easily identified from a distance, not someone's house or something. A little bit wary now, we pressed forward.
Our scenery for the beginning of a long walk
By 10:00, it was clear that we weren't going to make the Tea with the Stars event on time, but we weren't really that concerned. We were still having fun chatting about random stuff and laughing at our combined ridiculousness. By that point, Nikki and I had given up all pretenses of being in-character and were going barefoot down the main street. Me because I wasn't used to flip flops in general and was about two sizes smaller than Nikki for her shoes to work for me, and her because the flip flops in question tended to cut into the skin after about 15 minutes. So there we were, completely lost and holding our shoes in our hands as Henry kept bursting out into old show tunes. It was so absurd that we didn't mind the detour. So we walked further...and further...until the factory that had been way in the distance when we first started looked suddenly close. At that point, it was well after 10:30 and we were pretty sure it was a no-go. They wanted to just turn around and go back, but I insisted on asking someone for directions anyway. We all had a feeling that we had overshot it some time ago, but I still wanted to know where it was. We ended up stopping this one very nice woman who was collecting seashells for help, and she turned out to be a local. Yup, we had definitely gone too far, and would we like a lift back into town? Yes, yes please. I love meeting cool people on the road. She lugged her haul of shells back over to her car, and then we climbed into the back. Since it was about 10:45 at that point, she asked if we wanted to try and see the planetarium anyway, just to see if we could catch part of the show. We figured, 'yeah, sure, what the heck' and agreed to let her drive us there.
Then our giggles took a decidedly hysterical tilt once she kept driving, and driving, and driving for a good five minutes or so. Yes, we had really gone that far. Apparently we were supposed to turn right at a hidden street and keep going until we saw an all-boys school, which wasn't on the map at all. The planetarium is actually just a regular building attached to the aforementioned school. Huh. Well, good to know. So we thanked her profusely and went inside to see if we could still catch any of it. Turns out that our timing couldn't have been better because the entire place is run by just one guy, and he was about to shut the doors for the second half of the presentation - which was actually the coolest part. He had spent the first hour leading the group through a slide show of various celestial objects and talking about the earthquake, so the part about the stargazing was just about to begin.
So we limped inside and found about four or five older couples already sitting in these cushy chairs inside. The planetarium basically consisted of three rooms: one main display room with lots of educational posters and memorabilia, one movie room where they show slides and movies, and the observatory itself, where everyone gathers in a semi-circle around this machine and recline backwards to look at the ceiling. That’s where we all went right away. Apparently he had just turned off the lights and was just about to launch into his charting of the night sky when we arrived, so it was perfect timing.
The reason that I wanted to go to the event in the first place is because it was supposed to be a demonstration of the night of the 1931 earthquake, with all of the stars and planets appearing as they did back then. Plus I’m a total nerd about astronomy stuff. If it wasn’t for all of the math and angles involved, I probably would’ve pursued it a bit more in school. Anyways, he dimmed the lights and set up the sky with the projector, and it was impressively realistic despite the fact that the thing was built back in the ’70s or ’80s. I won’t go into all of the details about the different constellations because I sense that I’ve already lost a few people just rambling already, but there was one cool piece of trivia that I picked up. You guys know what the NZ flag looks like? Well, I always knew that it basically looked like Australia’s except that it had four stars instead of six and left it at that. Turns out that those four stars are supposed to be the Southern Cross constellation that hangs in the Southern Hemisphere in place of Polaris, our North Star. That’s how people navigate at night down here. So NZ has the four stars of the Cross itself, and Australia has the same thing plus the two extra stars to represent its six original states. There’s my astronomy lesson for the day.
The whole thing was pretty cool, and the guy was very generous with his time. After the presentation, he offered us tea and scones with jam and butter and gave a little impromptu lecture about whatever questions we had. I’d say it was well worth the time and effort it took to get out there. I think Henry and Nikki enjoyed it as well, if only to have a cool place to rest their feet for a while.
The gardens
After the planetarium, we made our way slowly back to the city center with our shoes still in hand. By that point, it was about lunchtime, and the streets were definitely filling up with people in costume. We decided to take a little pit stop for coffees and lunch and then headed over to the main gardens by the beach. My God, they were so amazing. The pictures don’t really do the area justice. Nikki and I shamelessly dunked our feet in the fountain and sat there for a while, soaking up the sunshine and enjoying the cool water. Our feet were pretty much black after trudging all up and down the streets of Napier, so it was a welcome reprieve. Meanwhile, Henry did an exceptional job of scoping out the best places to stand and did his best to look suitably impressive with the backlighting.
Taking a break to wash our feet and hang out
Then we had the bright idea to try miniature golf. There was an actual event going on for it later, but we figured that it would be super crowded during the official time, so we decided to catch it while it was relatively quiet. Plus we got a discount for doing it in costume. The whole affair is a bit of a sore subject for Henry, so I’ll just say that we were all pretty evenly matched until I pulled ahead of Nikki in the end and Henry settled for a respectable third. I did, however, acquire a new injury to my already-destroyed feet in the form of a sunburn across the top. I didn’t really feel them burning until it was already too late. So that just made it all the more crucial to find suitable footwear.
Messing around and miniature golf
We agreed to go our separate ways for that very reason - I went off in search of shoes that actually fit, and they went out to hang a bit on their own with the understanding that we would all meet up again for dinner. I changed back into my street clothes and scoured all of Napier for a pair of plain, size 8 ½ high heels, but the venture was decidedly more involved than I had first expected. If they were in my size, they were $70 or more, if they were cheap, they were designed for someone half my size. Oh well. In the end, I ended up paying $20 for the last pair of affordable shoes in town, only to realize later that night that my feet were too abused to fit in anything less durable than tennis shoes. So that’s what I did for the duration of the entire trip - wore my black street shoes underneath the dress. It kind of broke the mood a bit, but I could actually walk down the street without clenching my teeth the whole way. Wow, I just ranted for way longer than I wanted to about my feet. Back to more interesting things.
More cool pics to make up for my boring narrative
After acquiring a then-suitable pair of shoes and exploring around a bit, I rendezvoused with Henry and Nikki for some very nice fish and chips down by the beach. Right around that time, I also met up with a girl named Kim, a cool California girl who happened to be sleeping in the bunk below mine at Archie’s. We clicked right away and made it a point to hang out over the course of the weekend. She tagged along with all of us when we changed into our evening wear for the Big Sounds Tonight concert at the Sound Shell. Unfortunately, because of the state of my feet, I couldn’t really do much dancing - or standing - but it was fun to watch all of the couples down at the front of the stage. My God, people in Napier can dance like nobody’s business. It was hard to take pictures of all of them because the lighting wasn’t especially great, but every single person was at the professional level for swing, jitterbug, and any other kind of dance from that era. Pretty amazing.
Fish and Chips
Amazing park that I found
Big Sounds Tonight
And that was Friday. Saturday was a little more low-key with lots of hanging and exploring. Nikki and Henry slept in after lots of drinking down at the concert the night before, so Kim and I went downtown to cruise through the streets. First we did the Traction Trundle at 10am, which basically consisted of a fifteen minute ride in a cart pulled by an old-fashioned tractor. That was pretty fun and relaxing for the first item of the day. Then we went down to the costume shop to get Kim a hat and boa to blend in with the rest of the crowd and shopped around on Emerson Street. All up and down the town, there were bands set up for impromptu performances on the street. In the course of ten minutes, we passed a jazz band, an all-girl a capella group, a barber shop quartet, a woman belting out epic love ballads, and another swing band. There were people crowded around each one, and, once again, all of the dancers were bloody incredible.
Traction Trundle, Posing, and Coolness
By the time we reached the end of Emerson, the car parade was just about to get started, so we found some places along the sidewalk to watch. They were all polished to a very high shine and decked out for the public show. You could tell that the owners lived for this one day of the year to show off their babies. I was just impressed by many cars there were. I mean, the parade started at noon, and it was still going strong at 1pm when we finally pulled away to get some food. Then it was time to go our separate ways again. I had tickets for a Celtic Concert at 2:30 down in St. Paul’s Church, so I wanted to had down in that direction before it got too late. While I was waiting, I climbed up to the top of this hill and got some great overhead shots of the city.
People getting ready for car parade
Napier from above
The actual concert was pretty impressive with this one group doing songs pretty much nonstop for two hours. I dunno, I’ve always like bagpipes - I guess it’s one of the few things that I remember in a positive light from my time in Mr. Caspers’ art class. They had a lot of Scottish dancing, singing, and music all around with a few random acts of people standing up to recite old jokes. The only downside was that I was definitely the youngest person there, and I got the feeling that nearly everyone else in the room knew each other somehow. There was a lot of, “Alright, now I know everyone knows this song, so sing along if you know it!” kind of stuff going on to songs I had never heard of, but I managed not to stand out too much. At least I recognized Scotland the Brave and Amazing Grace, so I wasn’t a complete lost cause.
Celtic Concert
Once the concert was finished, I met up with Kim for the 5pm scheduled tour around Napier at the iSite. For some reason, we were the only ones that showed up, so it was just us and main guide. He was a very nice, older guy named Barry, and he definitely knew his stuff about Art Deco architecture and history. He showed us little details that we had missed about certain buildings and filled us in on some more back story that we hadn’t heard mentioned in the brochures before. We went all over the city with him, so it wasn’t until about 7pm that we were able to go get some food and then change back into our evening clothes.
Nikki and Henry were set to go out on the catamaran for dinner later, but we made sure to set up a time to meet up with them after they were done. While they were off doing that, Kim and I went to scope out the Twilight Toe Tap down the street and were treated to some more awesome dancing. It’s hard to write about the whole night because it was just a vibe of relaxed entertainment that’s difficult to describe to someone who wasn’t there. At some point, Henry and Nikki rejoined us for some more hang-out time on the town. I guess the catamaran had been alright, but the waves were so big that everyone got a little sea sick. So they didn’t really eat a lot of the food that they paid so much for. They were happy to make up for it with coffee and wine, though.
Sunday was, if possible, even more relaxing with almost every planned event free of charge to the public. I got up early to walk down to Countdown for some picnic supplies. Henry and Nikki had already bought loads of food for the Gatsby Picnic at 1pm, and I felt a little guilty mooching off of them all the time, so I made a point of chipping in with bread, ginger beer, and snacks. Countdown actually pretty far out of town, so by the time I got back, it was almost time for the Soap Box Derby to start. I barely had time to get changed into my costume, get everyone together, and find a nice spot down by the starting line.
Soap Box Derby. So cute.
Okay, this was just adorable. Basically, these families had been working on these little cars for the entire year, and each one had its own personality. Some were like little go-carts with modified bike parts for brakes, others were more like wagons with pieces of rope for steering, and some of them were really out there and creative, like one shaped like a giant wine bottle. If anyone’s seen World’s Fastest Indian with Anthony Hopkins, one little girl was riding a bike with that kind of design, and another girl was completely sealed inside the bottom of a rocket ship with her feet sticking out the back. You could tell all of the parents thought it was really cute, too, and the announcers made it a point to crack jokes with all sorts of observations about the cars.
Race about to start and people watching from balconies
Once the race was set to start, they all lined up at the top of the hill outside the Masonic Hotel, and one of the adults gave them a great big push to get them all the way down to the finish line at the bottom. There’s something sweet and endearing about a mom or dad loading their kid up in a suspiciously-designed piece of metal and hurling them down a hill with a yell of, “Have fun, honey!” Surprisingly, there were only two crashes for the whole day. One was just a matter of a kid hitting the side of the wall separating her from the spectators and having to be carried back up to the start, but one was actually pretty gnarly. For one race, the parents and kids switched places, and I think the weight was a little off for holding the mom as the driver. The whole thing flipped upside down while the husband was still pushing from the back, and he nearly fell on top of her before twisting sideways at the last second. That one could have been fairly bad, but the whole thing was shaken off in true New Zealand spirit, and it all continued on.
The Derby went until about noon, so we had roughly an hour until the picnic to walk around a bit. Kim was off on a half-day wine tour, so she was set to meet us later. In the meantime, Henry, Nikki, and I went to check out the elaborate tents that had been set up along the Upper and Lower lawns. Some people got really into it with all sorts of decorations and fine china to highlight the food. I think there was supposed to be a competition later for the best ones. Since we weren’t quite that organized, we just found a spot of dry grass just behind the wall of the Sound Shell and set up our picnic there. Henry and Nikki had made chicken rice and sandwiches, and there were all sorts of little snacks like crackers and cheese to keep us more than happy. I was starving, but even I couldn’t do any more after the first two or three portions.
Gatsby Picnic area, our lunch
After about an hour, the air show started up right in front of us with Those Magnificent Men doing all sorts of stunts along the beach. That was pretty cool. They had been showing off throughout the weekend, but it was hard to catch them in the middle of other events. Kim showed up just in time to watch the end of it, and we all just chilled there until about 3pm, eating and talking. Finally, we went to check out the Dry Boat Racing down by the fountain. I had thought that it would involve actual boats like, you know, in the water, but apparently it was just a bunch of kids in canoes running as fast they could along the beach in rubber boots. It was still pretty cute, but not quite as entertaining as the Derby from that morning. Again, there were a few close calls with people nearly getting hit right in the face by other boats, but it all worked out fine in the end.
Air Show and Dry Boat Racing
Right around 4pm, the perfect weather finally came to an end, and it started to sprinkle a bit. We were actually very lucky that the sun lasted for so long, because the forecast had predicted rain throughout the weekend. And that was pretty much the end of Art Deco. Nothing was really scheduled in the program after 3 o’ clock, and no one wanted to stay out in the rain, so we kind of called it a day. We sat to watch one last midday jazz performance down at the Sound Shell before Kim had to go her separate way. She’s working on an internship down in Wellington, so she had fly back down there for work. The rest of us went back to Archie’s to change out of our clothes and pack up for the return home.
Last minute dancing
As I said, nothing was really planned for Sunday night, but I decided to go back to the Planetarium for one last hurrah while Henry and Nikki went to a country western show. The guy - Gary Sparks, I later found out - had run into us earlier in the day and had invited us to come back for the 7pm showing if we had time. Since I literally had nothing else to do, I figured that might be kind of fun. So I set off in the rain and walked all the way out there again. It was much easier the second time with good sneakers and a waterproof coat to keep me comfortable. Now, the planetarium was supposed to be open 7-9 for the public, and I got there just before 7 for the main presentation. It goes without saying that I had way too much fun because I didn’t leave until one in the morning. Yeah. What basically happened was he led the group through the film and nightly stargazing demonstration like usual, but then we got to talking about other things. A nice German couple wandered in at about 8:30, and, rather than turn them away, he let them in to show them some things while they were there. I got sucked in as well, and before we knew it, it was just the four of us sitting in the observatory with a bottle of wine between us and the sounds of rain outside. Pretty awesome. The guy was incredibly nice and didn’t seem too concerned about the late hour at all. He said he’d rather hang out and chat with interesting people than go home in the middle of a storm, so we just stayed there talking with him. There came a point where he offered to let us crash on the floor for the night, but I knew that it would be better for me to sleep back at Archies. After all, I had already paid to stay there for the night. So the German couple gave me a lift back to town after some nice goodbyes, and I got a few hours of sleep before the big travel day home.
Monday was pretty much just packing and last-minute details. I had breakfast down at a great little café on Emerson Street and ending up running into the same guy who did the tour for us. Then it was time to say goodbye to Napier. It was sad because the entire place had pretty much returned to normal overnight, and all of the costumed visitors had gone by then. It was definitely a fun experience, though, and I would recommend it to anyone passing through New Zealand in mid-February.
My breakfast
And that’s it for Napier. Right now, I’m traveling South on the Stray bus, so it might be difficult to post things very often. I’ll probably be doing a lot of things everyday, too, so it’ll be hard to keep up to date, but I’ll do my best. Right now, I’m in Tongariro National Park after climbing Lord of the Rings’ Mount Doom yesterday, so I should have some pictures up for that next. Thanks for baring with all of my mindless chatter - I know I tend to ramble on a bit. See you all again in a week or two!