I went to stay in Napier for a couple of days and managed to take quite a good crop of pictures. The weather was ideal, glorious end-of-summer light.

We stayed at a beautiful house that sits on top of a hill overlooking the port area; this was the view from the balcony.

Napier Port - click for full size

Napier is a busy port; it ships wood and paper. It’s also the fruit basket of New Zealand and has many wineries.

It’s also famous worldwide for it’s Art Deco buildings. In 1931 it was devastated by an earthquake, 7.8 on the Richter scale (which is quite a decent size, more than 20 times the size of the recent Haiti earthquake).

Many of the buildings were destroyed and when they were rebuilt, used the prevalent Art Deco style. Now that Art Deco has become popular again, Napier is an Art Deco tourist destination. Here’s a classic example:

Napier Theatre - click for full size

This theatre was completely destroyed in the earthquake. It  was rebuilt and reopened in 1938. It was renovated in 1997.

HDR Spotting Invite Codes

I have some HDR Spotting invite codes; email me if you’d like one (send a link to your Flickr page or image portfolio). My email is bob at beausoft dotcom