Napier

Next in line is the coastal town of Napier. I am a little fuzzy about the exact dates, but the general gist of the story is that in the late 1920s, Napier was the epicenter of a massive earthquake that completely leveled all but one or two buildings in the town. A couple of years later, the town was rebuilt. The town planners took the opportunity of starting from scratch to do something bold - they rebuilt the entire town in the Art Deco style. "How charming!" one would think. That's what I thought when I read about Napier in my guidebook. That's why I chose to come here. I like Art Deco, at least I thought. But, in reality, a whole Art Deco town is a little weird. Somehow the buildings looked very dated, rather than classic. It kind of reminded me of the horrible '80s fashion of the Golden Girls. It was dated and rather lifeless. It probably did not help that the entire town shut down, except for a small number of pubs and even fewer restaurants, promptly at 5 pm, if not 4 pm - which was fully 4 hours before it gets dark here at the moment. So, I spent quite some time wandering around what felt like a strange pastel ghost town. I hear South Beach, Miami has the largest collection of Art Deco architecture in the world. I wonder if they manage to pull it off?