Napier is a New Zealand city with a seaport, located in Hawke’s Bay on the eastern coast of the North Island. The population of Napier is about 58,800 as of the June 2011 estimate. About 18 kilometres south of Napier is the inland city of Hastings. These two neighbouring cities are often called “The Twin Cities” or “The Bay Cities” of New Zealand. The total population of the metropolitan area of Napier and Hastings is about 122,600 people, which makes Napier-Hastings the fifth-largest metropolitan area in New Zealand, closely followed by Tauranga (pop. 116,000), and Dunedin (pop. 115,000), and trailing Hamilton (pop. 203,400).
Napier is about 320 kilometres northeast of the capital city of Wellington. Napier has a population smaller than Hastings but is seen as the main centre due to it having both the seaport and the airport, although Hastings has a small aerodrome.
Napier’s major tourist attraction is its architecture, which draws Art Deco and architecture enthusiasts from around the world. The rebuilding period after the 1931 earthquake coincided with the short-lived and rapidly changing Art Deco era and the Great Depression, when little “mainstreet” development was being undertaken elsewhere. As a result Napier’s architecture is strikingly different from any other city; the other notable Art Deco city, Miami Beach, has Streamline Moderne Art Deco. The whole centre of Napier was rebuilt simultaneously.
Napier is a popular tourist city. It has one of the most photographed tourist attractions in the country, a statue on Marine Parade called Pania of the Reef. Thousands of people flock to Napier every February for the Art Deco Weekend event, a celebration of its Art Deco heritage and history. Other notable tourist events attracting many outsiders include the region’s annual Wine & Food Festival (named Harvest Hawke’s Bay), and Mission Concert at the Mission Estate Winery in the nearby township of Taradale.
