Napier

Napier is a city on the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Hawke’s Bay region. It is a beachside city with a seaport, known for its sunny climate, esplanade lined with Norfolk pines, and extensive Art Deco architecture. For these attributes, Napier is sometimes romantically referred to as the “Nice of the Pacific”.

Places to go

Perfect Destinations In Napier

Napier Prison

Situated on Napier’s Bluff Hill, the Napier Prison, formerly a place where convicts were imprisoned, also used to be an orphanage, a psychiatric unit, and finally, is used as a historic facility. The eerie past incidents and the mysterious surroundings will undoubtedly give you the chills. Many stories of the place being haunted have been heard, adding to the eeriness.

National Aquarium of New Zealand

Located on Marine Parade, the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier boasts a rich and diverse collection of freshwater, saltwater and land exhibits from around the world. Previously known as the Napier Aquarium, this attraction offers a wide variety of aquatic and semi-aquatic species like seahorses, Penguins, Kiwi, Tuatara, Piranha, Turtles, Eels, Sharks and Reef Fish, among others, to explore and witness in person.

Pania of the Reef

Pania of the Reef on Marine Parade, Napier is a bronze statue of the Māori mythical figure Pania, whose love story continues to charm the locals and tourists here even today. This statue was put up in the year 1954 by the Thirty Thousand Club after Vic Wallis and Horace Cottrell, two of the club’s senior members, heard the story of Pania and came up with the idea to build the statue.

Napier Centennial Gardens

To the North end of the Marine Parade in Napier, New Zealand, are the spectacular Centennial Gardens, designed in 1974 to mark the centenary of Napier as a city. It was originally a quarry and was later made into a garden by the inmates of Napier prison, and the council gardeners, with the soil here, moved from another site. The waterfall in the gardens is the main attraction here with a view at night which is beautiful to look at.

Waipātiki Beach

Waipātiki Beach is a small coastal village in the Hastings District and Hawke’s Bay Region of New Zealand‘s North Island. It is situated in a little valley at the end of a road that branches off the main road from Napier to Gisborne (SH 2) and that finally, after 11 km, leads to a small sandy beach; first Tangoio Rd, then Waipātiki Road.