Napier ArtDeco

So last Friday morning I woke up at 08.20. I heard the car leave and that was a bad sign. I overslept! I texted my hmum but I had to catch the bus at 12.45 anyway so I just stayed home! I skyped my friend and got ready. At 12.45 I took the bus from Rotorua Central to Napier. At 16.30 I arrived in Napier where I saw Pauline, a German exchange student. I met her host family and we drove to her house. A stunning house! A sand coloured beachy looking house with a big pool and spa and wow! But there was no time, we had to get changed! The reason why I went to Napier was for the ArtDeco. Every year there’s a huge event in Napier. Everybody and everything is dressed up in 1920’s/1930’s/Gatsby style. Knowing it was only once a year and so close I had to go! So quickly we got dressed. I wore a long black dress and a sidebun with a feather on my head. We then took the taxi to a restaurant on the bay. Honestly the best food I’ve had in a while! A grilled chicken with avocado sauce and some fried onion rings I think. For dessert a cheesecake! Well that done we went to town. We got dropped of about 2 minutes from town and honestly, getting to the centre of town was so cool! It felt like I stepped into another world. Ev-ery-body was wearing these super old fashioned clothes. The girls were wearing matching skirts and tops, feathers, round hats, heels with socks, pearls and just the typical stuff. The guys were wearing beige pants with white blouses and suspenders, some were wearing suits or hats. Also what I absolutely loved about Napier were the buildings. They were more European which you don’t see in New Zealand. Lots of soft colours like baby pink, mint green and yellow. The font used for the street signs or shop titles were in Gatsby style just amazing! Well just imagine that as a city but then also everywhere you looked there were the most beautiful and old fashioned cars, people had them parked or they were driving around in them. Napier is a beach city so on the beach there was a huge stage with numerous of people sitting in front of it. The music was the typical old fashioned music I don’t know how to describe it, amazing. We walked to the beach, by that time it was really dark, and people were sitting on little blankets looking at the stars and the ocean with the music in the background. Then there were some kids kneeling on the ground in front of each other. Someone told me and my friends (we met another exchange student from Belgium Celine who lives there) to walk in between the kneeling kids. We though huh? We did and as we walked between the kids, like 8 on each side, the all stood up and started clapping! So cute because the little boys had their little outfits with hats and aaaw. Well after that we went to have a drink on a random spot. Some older people had just put a table in the middle of the city with candles and fancy cutlery, they were just having a casual dinner there haha! Around 23.00 Pauline’s host dad took us to an exclusive building. Only people who have a pass or leadership there can go in and take family. We went with her parents, siblings and friends. Yes we were a whole family at that time. The building looked a bit like The White House from the outside but from the inside it was a fancy wooden building with lots of rooms. We opened one of the 871 doors and got to a bar where this fancy dressed butler with a moustache served us. I just felt like a royal sitting there sipping my drink in a fancy dress surrounded by all these men in suits haha! Good times good times. At 00.00 the taxi came and took us to our home. Of course the night wasn’t over. We quickly changed into our togs and jumped in the pool! It had been a 25 degrees day so well deserved. We put some music on and her brother and his friend and girlfriend joined us. They guys were doing all these crazy flips and bombs in the water. One really caught our eye, ‘the salmon’. You basically run sideways in the pool and act like an almost dead fish, flapping around. Above the pool there were some pillars that were shielding the garden from the sun. It was maybe like 7 meters high and they dared me and Pauline to jump off it, after them of course. We thought “Oh well we’re in NZ it’s all part of the experience”. We climbed on the chairs, the car, the fence and some shoulders and heads and yes, there we were on top of pillars looking down on the pool. It was honestly so scary! At the count of 10 we jumped in the water. Water splashed everything but it was all good. It got a bit chilly so of course there was a cure for that. The spa! (for the non kiwi’s a spa is a Jacuzzi). We walked up stairs to a balcony and me and Pauline jumped in the Jacuzzi. We stayed there till 2 in the morning just talking and talking and every now and then we’d stop and just look up and see the bright stars, loved that moment!

The next morning we woke up because of this tremendous heat. We walked up stairs to have breakfast and it turned out to be 33 degrees outside!!! Crazy! We had some toast and our plan was actually to go to town and see the parade of cars but we kind of thought we would die of heat going there so instead we spent 2,5 hours in the pool. It was honestly so so so hot. We got out to have a sunbathe but after 10 minutes I felt like a fried chicken. It was lunchtime so that’s what we did. We had lunch outside but honestly because of the heat everybody was so lazy and tired. We were almost too tired to pass the food around. After lunch we decided it was about time to go to town. We just wore normal clothes and went to town. We weren’t planning on it but we ended up shopping. Something that had to happen at one stage. I bought a watch, a top, some socks and a t-shirt to exercise in. It’s to motivate myself, I went for a run today!!! Anyway. We ended our long exhausting day of shopping with an Italian ice cream. We ordered our ice cream, of course I chose chocolate, and sat outside. It’s just so much fun seeing all these people dressed up and the music again in the background. During daytime it even looked better! I saw a guy going round on this weird bike with like one huge front wheel and one tiny back wheel. Also a girl running around on this round wooden thing. After our ice cream we went back home where we went straight to the pool to dip our feet while dinner was getting ready. It actually got to 35/36 degrees that day. The people there were saying that it had been the hottest day this year. So dinner done we went to get changed again in Gatsby style. Me and Pauline were just so lazy and tired because of the weather and we just collapsed on our beds whenever it was possible. We just wore something simple because it was too hot and of course had our feathers in our hair. When we got to town it was the same atmosphere as the day before bubbly, dancy and old! The day before I saw a little van that sold Chai Tea Lattes and I wanted to check it out. Pauline and I went to the place and asked the man what he had to offer. He let us try home made Chai Masala. After that he let us try a Chocolate Masala, which I didn’t like at all! We both chose the hot Chai Masala because that’s what people drink in India he said. It’s so hot there that they drink Chai which makes the body cool down. You could see how he had freshly cooked the herbs and he then had two glasses and poured the Chai from one glass to the other and then split it equally. Freshly home made Chai! Then In front of the colourful hippie van there was a French DJ on the left side playing these super chilled remixes. There were some chairs on the right but we chose the cushions on the ground with a table in the middle. We honestly spent almost 2,5 hours sitting there sipping our chai looking at the people passing by and enjoying the music. There was this one Australian lady, originally from Italy, who started dancing on her own full of life. A few moments later some girls joined in, then an old couple and before we knew all these people passing by stopped and formed a circkle around the little Chai place and started clapping and dancing with them. Honestly one of the best moments I just loved the atmosphere, I couldn’t be happier! After a while the people left but this old couple just danced on the streets by themselves. It was so cute! Like an old black and white movie  Again we met Celine and she started talking in French with the DJ. Pauline started talking to the man behind the Chai’s and I started talking to the Australian woman. We then all swapped and started talking to someone else. I can notice that I’m way more open when it comes to talking to strangers, love it! When I talked to the Chai man, Tim by the way, he said that he knew 1 Dutch word. I asked him to say it and he said: “are you sure you want to know?” Haha yes try me, I said. “Okay, I’m sorry godverdomme” He said. I laughed so hard. How can a kiwi man now only 1 Dutch word which is that swearword hahha! I asked him how he knew and he said he used to play a sport with a Dutch guy and he asked him to teach him some Dutch…. Well then. Funny though because when people here ask me to teach them a Dutch swearword I pick the same one! After a great night we had to go home again. We arrived home around 23.30 and again we went for a swim. Just the 2 of us this time.

The next day we had to be in town at 10.30 to help out with her Rotary Club. There were some races being held by 9 year olds. They sorta had to build their own cart without an engine and then race from the top to the bottom of the street. It was packed with people cheering and watching. And the little guys racing were dessed so cute again! With their little shorts, blouses, suspenders and ‘grandpa hats’. Pauline and I went to the beach and sat down. It was a very sunny day again with a clear blue sky. You actually can’t swim in that sea because it’s too rough but looking at it was enough. It was a black stony beach which gave it a cool effect. After that we went to a little park to have a picnic. At that time there was a big parade of guys dressed in white suits playing music and marching down the street. After that 4 planes were flying in the air and making figures with their steam, such a cool thing to see! Having that done at 13.20 my bus left to Rotorua again. I can say that this was definitely one of my favourite things I’ve done so far here. I wish I could go back!