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Published: February 18th 2007
Without a doubt (and not wholly unexpectedly) the absolute highlight of my time here in NZ was going to the Art Deco Weekend in Napier. The city of Napier (on the sunny east coast, I'd call it the kiwi riviera) was nearly completely destroyed in 1931 after an earthquake, so it was basically rebuilt from scratch. This results in one of the densest concentrations of magnificent art deco architecture in the world (along with South Beach Miami). Every 3rd weekend in February the city throws their beloved art deco weekend - and I just had to go to that one, didn't I?
The whole weekend was such a fabulous affair, I'm finding it hard to find a place to start, so I'll try and start right at the beginning:
On Friday (16.2), after a frustrating morning hanging around Paraparaumu waiting for my bus I got to Napier late afternoonish and headed for my hostel, or should I say hotel, as The Criterion Backpackers is housed in a former posh hotel (art deco of course), so I stayed in style and right in the heart of the city at the Criterion! After a quick shower I changed into my 30s
style dress and hat and headed out into the town. There was a great evening of big bands at the soundshell and some amazing flying displays with all sorts of formations and fancy loops and things.
Saturday I started the day with a steam train ride to Hastings (the neighbouring town) and back. I was sitting next to a japanese lady who'd come over especially for the weekend! Not everybody dressed up, but I would say at least 65% did.
We got back to Napier in time for the magnificently spiffing automobilia parade - I have never ever seen so many beautiful cars in one place, and of course everybody taking part was appropriately dressed. The first part I watched it go by from the street, but then headed to the Criterion and went out on the terrace - what a splendid view we had from there!! The best place to have been, I reckon.
After that I went to a swing lesson, which is just as well, as I needed the few skills I learned there later on in the day.
In the afternoon it was time for the costumes competition (normal clothes and bathing outfits! they were
a hoot!). NB: the sun was shining all the time!!!
For the evening I changed into my piece de resistance (still no accents on this keyboard!): my little flapper number. I got the necessary headgear earlier on in one of the well stocked shops. I hadn't been out of the hostel for 5 minutes before someone wanted a photograph with me - I must say it felt so GOOD! I had quite a few comments during the course of the evening...and a couple more photo shoots!
The highlight of the whole weekend though was the Twilight Toe Tap - Street Jazz and dancing!! I was so lucky I ran into the hands of a group of swing dancers from Auckland and spent the whole evening with them. I had an amazing time dancing there, I really have to find a place to take more Swing lessons at home, it's an amazing dance. Later on in the evening a little boy (couldn't have been more than 10 I imagine) asked me to dance with him - so cute! He came back for two more dances later on, a little less shy each time - bless!
Alas, all good things need
to come to an end and I was really sad to leave that bustling place. If ever I come to NZ again I'm definitely coming in February and going to the Art Deco Weekend... it was so amazing to be around people who love that period as much as I do and like dressing up as much as well - I felt really out of it when I got back into my normal clothes to go back to Rotorua.
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Kathi
non-member comment
Neid!!!!!!
Wahnisnn, muss echt genial gewesen sein! Ich bereue ja schon länger nicht mitgekommen zu sein, aber das toppt jetzt alles. Super, dass jetzt auch schon die Fotos online sind, bin schon gespannt auf mehr...