Napier New Zealand

Napier is an important port city in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. 

Napier is the only city in the Hawke's Bay region and 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.

The town is on the Bluff Hill headland and the surrounding plain at the southeastern edge of Hawke Bay, a large semi-circular bay that dominates the east coast of New Zealand's North Island.

The town enjoys some of the highest sunshine hours in New Zealand, the warm, relatively dry climate the result of its location on the east coast, a Mediterranean climate delivered from the waters to the north, and its strategic position in Hawke's Bay.

Napier's major tourist attraction is the town itself, which draws Art Deco and architecture enthusiasts from around the world.

Other tourist attractions in Napier include The Hawke's Bay Museum and Art Gallery which features information on both the 1931 Earthquake and Napier's redesign as an art deco city, Marineland, the National Aquarium and the Soundshell.

Tourists flock to Napier in February for Art Deco weekend and the Mission Concert Weekend. The large wine industry hosts the Annual Harvest Hawkes Bay Weekend.

Many tourists enter Napier by State Highway 2, by rail (though this is becoming uncommon) or by air. Hawkes Bay is served by Hawkes Bay Airport which is located north of the marina.

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier,_New_Zealand