Ngāti Kahungunu says it's a welcome sight. Video / Te Ao
Happy 150th, Napier.
A weekend of indulgence in history has been begun with the arrival of a delegation from Canadian sister-city Victoria to help celebrate 150 years since the town of Napier became a borough in late November 1874.
The Marine Parade Soundshell will host the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Napier's accession as a borough, beginning at 7am on Thursday. Photo / Doug Laing
A pōhiri for the delegation, including Victoria B.C. Mayor Marianne Alto, Canadian indigenous representatives Chief Jerome Thomas, of the Esquimalt Nation, and councillors Norman Garry Sam and Karen Tunkara, from the Songhees Nation, was held on Wednesday morning at Wharerangi Marae.
The group were doing a guided Art Deco walk mid-afternoon and were scheduled for an experience on the waka Te Matau a Māui in the evening.
Victoria, in British Columbia, established a sister-city relationship with Napier in 1973 as part of a global move to develop business and other opportunities between communities. Victoria staged the Commonwealth Games in 1994, four years after the games were last held in New Zealand in 1990.
Victoria B.C Mayor Marianne Alto (centre) welcomed by Napier city councillor Ronda Chrystal (right) during the Wharerangi Marae welcome for a delegation from the Canadian sister-city in town for Napier 150 years commemorations. Photo / Supplied.
Napier has other sister-city relationships with Japanese port city Tomakomai and Chinese cities Lianyungang and Xuzhou.
The celebrations kick off with a Marine Parade Soundshell Napier 150 Years commemoration starting at 7am on Thursday, with storytelling in a special video playing on the corner of Emerson and Market Sts from 8am to 4pm, and a history session with Elizabeth Pishief at the MTG from 5.30pm.
The first 150 there from 9am wanting a coffee will get it for free, with a similar deal for free Mr Whippy ice cream, from midday, again for the first 150 takers.
Other features are a ticketed Friday-night Faraday Museum of Technology celebration of 100 years of the Fullagar engine, which powered the city in times gone by, and an Ahuriri Whānau Fest at Anderson Park at Greenmeadows, to be held 10am-3pm on Saturday.
The historical atmosphere will also prevail at a 200-year commemoration of the 1824 battle Te Pakanga o Pakake, which will run for two days. It starts on Friday with an all-day commemoration hosted by Ngāti Pārau at Waiohiki Marae, near Taradale, followed on Saturday by dawn karakia and a hāngī breakfast at the Pakake pā site off Hyderabad Rd, Ahuriri, near the rear of the Thirsty Whale bar and restaurant.
The area of Ahuriri where the commemoration of the 1824 of the Battle of Pakake will take place on Saturday. Photo / Doug Laing
Among those speaking at Waiohiki will be historian Pat Parsons, who researched the area, events and people for the WAI55 Te Whanganui a Orotu (Napier inner harbour) claim and other claims that were heard by the Waitangi Tribunal in the 1990s.
Other events in Hawke’s Bay on Friday and the weekend are hip-hop dance competition the Battle in the Bays at Toitoi - Opera House, Hastings, on Friday from 6pm and Saturday from 9am, and also on Saturday the Hawke’s Bay Country Round Up rodeo place at Tomoana Showgrounds, Hastings, with gates opening off Elwood Rd at 8am, and the Eskdale School PTA Bay View Market at Petane Domain, starting at 9am.
Also on the sports agenda is a four-day, Thursday-Sunday Plunket Shield men’s first-class cricket match between Central Stags and Wellington Firebirds at McLean Park, Napier, and Meeanee Speedway’s superstocks match between the Hawke’s Bay Hawkeyes and the Wellington Wildcats on Saturday night.
There will be a touch of Christmas on Sunday with Carols on the Green in Havelock North, from 4pm.
There won’t be any cruise tourists, with the next passenger ship berthing at the Port of Napier scheduled to be two stops within four days next week by the Silver Muse, which has a capacity of 596 passengers.
Hastings had the second-to-warmest temperatures recorded by MetService on Tuesday, with a peak of 27.5C, preceding a night in which temperatures in Napier stayed above 20C until about 10pm, with an overnight minimum of about 13C.
Temperatures on Thursday of up to 31C were still being forecast for Hastings, followed by a drop of about 10C on Friday. MetService says the hottest temperatures this year in the area were on January 14, when Hastings peaked at 33.6C and Napier at 33C.
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 51 years of journalism experience, 41 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.
