On 3 February 1931, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake levelled the city of Napier and killed 256 people. Within two years, the city rebuilt itself in the architectural style of the day — Art Deco. Today Napier's city centre is the most complete collection of 1930s Art Deco architecture in the world, a pastel-coloured time capsule of zigzags, sunbursts, and Maori motifs.

Stops on This Tour (8)

1. 1
   Art Deco Centre (former Fire Station) The starting point for all Art Deco walking tours — the 1930s fire station now houses the Art Deco Trust, with maps, guided tour bookings, and a gift shop of Deco-era reproductions
2. 2
   Daily Telegraph Building The most flamboyant Art Deco building in Napier — ziggurat tower, sunburst panels, and fountain motifs, designed by EA Williams and completed in 1932 just a year after the quake
3. 3
   T&G Building (Dome) The landmark dome on the corner of Emerson and Tennyson Streets — the first reinforced concrete building in the rebuilt city, crowned with a copper cupola visible from the harbour
4. 4
   Masonic Hotel A grand Art Deco hotel on the corner of Marine Parade and Tennyson Street — the geometric facade and streamlined balconies capture the optimism of a city rebuilding itself from rubble
5. 5
   National Tobacco Company Building Often called New Zealand's finest Art Deco building — the rose and vine motifs above the entrance are glazed ceramic, and the interior features bronze elevator doors and pressed metal ceilings
6. 6
   Marine Parade & Sound Shell The beachfront promenade rebuilt on land uplifted by the earthquake itself — the ground rose by two metres, creating new land that became the city's seaside park and open-air amphitheatre
7. 7
   Pania of the Reef Statue Napier's equivalent of Copenhagen's Little Mermaid — a bronze statue of the Maori legend of Pania, a beautiful sea maiden who fell in love with a mortal and was turned to a reef
8. 8
   Bluff Hill Lookout A short drive or steep walk above the city — 360-degree views of Napier, Hawke Bay, Cape Kidnappers in the distance, and the Art Deco district laid out like a pastel-coloured model below

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