Click
HERE for a map of Hawkes
Bay and surrounding areas
Napier, situated on the North
Island's east coast, on the southern end of Hawke's
Bay, is one of New Zealand's little treasures.
Coupled with its neighbouring city of Hastings,
the area is refered to as "The Twin Cities" or "The Bay
Cities". Also in this area, is the small town of
Havelock North, which since
the 1989 reorganisation of local government, is now
classed as a suburb of Hastings, and is known locally as
'The Village'.
Napier and Hastings are connected
to all the the major cities in the country by regular daily flights
into Napier Airport and Hawke's Bay Airport . By road,
Auckland is north-west, a 260 mile (418 kms)
drive away and Wellington in a 199 mile (319 kms ) drive
south west from both Napier and Hastings.
The whole area was inhabited by
various Maori tribes for many centuries, and one of
the first Europeans to discover the region was
Captain James Cook, who visited the area in October
1769. Settlers followed over the years, and by the
1850's, the full range of settlement
infrastructure had arrived and the area was established.
Today Napier city has a population of around 56,000 residents,
and Hastings' population is around 65,700 residents.
Starting in 1854, Napier was
designed by the then Commissionber of Crown lands, Alfred Domett,
who went on to be Prime Minister of New Zealand. The town
itself was named after a British leader in India, Sir Charles
Napier, and many of the towns streets are named after colonial
events in India during the British Empire rule.
Hastings is just to the south-west
of Napier, 20km (12miles) inland from the coast, and is now the
biggest conurbation in the Hawkes Bay Area. The town grew
from small settlement beginnings to thriving town and farming
area, when in 1873, the New Zealand Government routed a
new railway through the area, linking Hastings and Napier to
lucrative export markets.
Napier and Hastings have a
wonderful collection of 1930's Art Deco buildings, which were
constructed after a devastating earthquake on
February 3rd 1931, which levelled most of Napier's and
Hastings's older buildings, requiring the towns to be almost
totally rebuilt. These Art Deco buildings are recogonised as
being the best representation of this style of architecture in
the World, equalling and surpassing the buildings to
be found on Miami's South Beach.
The economic basis of the area is
built around the world-renown wine industry, as well as fruit, (the
area is the largest apple, pear and stoned fruit growing area
in the country), wool, meat and timber, all passing
throught Napiers' major sea port, which serves this important
export area of New Zealand.
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