Tag Archives: Napier

In addition to the walk along the beach, make sure you also take in the sights on the parallel Marine Parade. If not, you’ll be missing some pretty interesting sights. One of those sights is an impressive group of Victorian-style homes called the Six Sisters:

These houses were built in 1891 by architect Robert Lamb for his six daughters. Today these beauties are occupied by businesses rather than home owners:

But even so, they do retain their charm:

These Victorians are actually a bit of an oddity in comparison with Napier architecture, which appeared to me to run more toward Art Deco.

Continuing north along Marine Parade you eventually wind up reaching Emerson Street, which appears to be the main shopping and entertainment area for Napier. You’ll know you’ve reached Emerson when you see the green dome of a rather large Art Deco building housing several businesses, including a bed-and-breakfast and a bar:

Hang a left and you’re on Emerson. Along the way you’ll see such nifty little gems as these:

Wellington, on New Zealand’s South Island, is where our two cruises diverged. Our 2020 cruise departed South Island and headed back to Sydney, Australia. But our 2019 voyage aboard Majestic Princess headed to North Island, with our first stop being Napier.

So, for the rest of this series on New Zealand, I’ll be concentrating solely upon our 2019 voyage aboard Majestic Princess. And as for today’s article, most of the photos you see today were taken along a stretch of beach extending from the National Aquarium of New Zealand, through the Napier Reef Garden, past the Sunken Gardens, and into town.

First up is some of the statuary found outside the National Aquarium of New Zealand:

Heading north from the aquarium takes you first to a rather picturesque water feature replete with birds, at least on this occasion:

We continued northward on foot, taking in the sights along the beach. And there were a lot of sights along this stretch:

There was a lot of driftwood in this area, including some bizarrely shaped intrigue such as this “duck”:

As we made our way toward the Sunken Gardens, which we’re going to save for next Monday, we came across a wooden “whale skeleton” structure of impressive size:

We’ll head back and cover the Sunken Garden next week. On Wednesday we’re going look at some interesting Victorian architecture known as the Six Sisters:

Then head into town. But for now I’ll leave you with a preview of what to expect in downtown Napier: