Napier is Hawkes's Bays coastal city and is world famous for its unique architecture, a legacy of the great 1931 earthquake which destroyed both cities with the loss of 258 lives.

REGIONAL HISTORY: Early last century, Traders, Whalers and Missionaries began moving into the province and in the 1850's farmers and the invertible hotelkeepers arrived and these formed the settlement that in time would become the city of Napier. The name "NAPIER", came from Sir Charles Napier, the hero of the Battle of Meeanee in the Indian province of Scinde and many streets in the city carry names associated with the British Indian Empire.

On Tuesday, February 3rd, 1931 at 10:46am, a 2.5 minute earthquake with a force of 7.6 on the Richter scale struck HB, almost totally levelling both cities, killing several hundred people and injuring 1000,s of others. All clouds have a silver lining and the earthquake raised some 4000 hectares of seabed by up to 3 metres. Today this has been developed into residential and industrial property.

Over the following three years the twin cities were rebuilt in the styles that were then currently very fashionable - Spanish Mission and Art Deco.

Napier concentrated on the Art Deco style and for most of this century, residents of Napier did not realise the importance of this. Finally over the last few years Napier has begun to value this unique building style and is at long last, is trying to preserve its important heritage. So much so, that in recent years it is developing a reputation as the "Art Deco" capital of the world.

Hastings mainly following the Spanish Mission style and has many fine examples of this style of architecture, including the Municipal Theatre which was built in 1915 and has been renovated to become one of the finest small performing theatres in NZ.