If you’re going to visit the Art Deco Capital of the World (which is, of course, Napier, New Zealand), you should go during the Art Deco Festival… which we did!

Napier, New Zealand is an incredibly cute place. Leveled by an earthquake on February 3, 1931, it was rebuilt in an Art Deco style that was popular in the 1930s. And really, it feels a bit like you stepped back in time when you walk into Napier. Of course, it could also be the case that it felt even more like a time warp for us because it was the Art Deco Festival, meaning there were people walking around in 1930s garb and old timey cars parked everywhere.

We walked around the downtown area, which actually felt a little like downtown Bend in terms of the types of shops that lined the streets. There were several fun statues along the way.

Walking along the streets, there were many old cars, presumably around for the Art Deco Festival. We’ve seen old cars before, of course, but it was definitely fun to see all the different styles of cars around and it made the city seem even more quaint.

We also found a cute garden filled with flowers just off the main city center. Here, a friendly guy told us about the jail that had tours (we passed on that) and the nearby museum (that we opted to do).

On our way to the museum, we stopped into a shop that was the headquarters for the festival. They had a fun dress up corner where we could get dolled up as if we were in the 30s.

We made it to the museum, which was tiny but great. There were three stories. The lowest level had details about the 1931 earthquake. It was a moving presentation that showed how devastating the natural disaster had been. They did a wonderful job creating this floor.

The top floor was on Marineland, a marine mammal park (think Sea World) that used to be in Napier but is now closed. There were some elements all about the cruelty of the park for the dolphins, seals, and other animals, so it’s probably a good thing it closed down.

The middle floor was all about Māori culture. Honestly, given we just did a Māori excursion the previous day we didn’t spend as much time in this area. What we saw looked well done though.

Following the museum, we made our way along the streets until we arrived at a mini golf place. Yep, mini golf. We decided to make it a fun date at this point, so we played 18 holes (the difficult course, of course). For the record, because this is important, I won. 😊

This concluded our time in Napier, as we headed back to the ship. A fun twist was that there were even more old timey cars parked right outside our ship, as a mini car show just for us. Can’t beat that!