Napier travel guide

Napier (Ahuriri in Māori) is an important port city in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. It has a population of 57,000. Ten kilometres to the south lies Hastings, Napier's twin city. The two are sometimes known in New Zealand as "The Twin Cities".
The town is 332 kilometres (about four hours) northeast by road from the capital, Wellington. It has a population smaller than Hastings, but as Hastings is administered as a district, Napier is the only city in the Hawke's Bay region. Napier is the largest crossbred wool centre in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the largest apple, pear and stone fruit producing areas in New Zealand. It has also become an important grape growing and wine production area with the fruit passing from the growers around Metropolitan Hastings and then to Napier for exporting. There are large frozen meat, wool, pulp and timber tonnages passing through Napier’s port.
Napier is a popular retirement town and tourist resort, and has one of the most photographed tourist attractions in the country, a statue on Marine Parade called Pania Of The Reef. Her statue is regarded in Napier in much the same way that the Little Mermaid statue is regarded in Copenhagen, and bears some similarities to its Scandinavian equivalent. In October 2005 the statue was stolen, but it was recovered a week later, largely unharmed. (...) more....