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Roots Earth in Napier: audio stories about 40 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 40 places in Napier, New Zealand, in Oceania. The Napier stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Napier, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 40 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: napier.md

The 40 places in Napier with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Art Deco Napier (City Centre)
  2. Marine Parade
  3. Waiapu Cathedral of St John the Evangelist
  4. MTG Hawke's Bay (Museum Theatre Gallery)
  5. Pania of the Reef Statue
  6. Napier Prison
  7. National Aquarium of New Zealand
  8. Napier Hill (Bluff Hill)
  9. 1931 Hawke's Bay Earthquake Memorial
  10. National Tobacco Company Building
  11. Daily Telegraph Building
  12. Napier Municipal Theatre
  13. Art Deco Centre / Napier Art Deco Trust
  14. Emerson Street
  15. Napier War Memorial
  16. Sound Shell and Sunken Gardens
  17. Tom Parker Fountain and Colonnade
  18. Napier Port
  19. Ahuriri and the Iron Pot
  20. Hawke's Bay
  21. Cape Kidnappers
  22. Te Mata Peak
  23. Mission Estate Winery
  24. Napier Girls' High School
  25. Napier Boys' High School
  26. Hastings
  27. Clive
  28. Ahuriri West Quay (waterfront bars & cafes)
  29. McLean Park
  30. Westshore
  31. Taradale
  32. Greenmeadows
  33. Onekawa
  34. Pirimai
  35. EIT Hawke's Bay (student quarter)
  36. Napier Marine Parade Skate Park
  37. Ocean Spa Marine Parade
  38. Hukarere Girls' College
  39. Waiohiki
  40. Bluff Hill Lookout

Is there an audio guide for Art Deco Napier (City Centre)?

Yes. Art Deco Napier (City Centre) has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 40 Napier places in the app, at -39.49028, 176.91778. Every one of the other 39 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Napier

Open Roots Earth and choose Napier. The city has its own map of places with all 40 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 40 places in Napier, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 40 places in Napier, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Art Deco Napier (City Centre)

Coordinates
-39.49028, 176.91778
In one line
Napier's compact city centre is one of the world's most complete Art Deco townscapes, rebuilt through the 1930s after the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake leveled it, its pastel facades alive with sunbursts and zigzags.

2. Marine Parade

Coordinates
-39.5, 176.91861
In one line
Marine Parade is Napier's grand seafront boulevard, a 3-kilometre esplanade of towering Norfolk pines, gardens, fountains, and memorials, lined with the aquarium, the museum, the Sound Shell, and the bronze Pania of the Reef.

3. Waiapu Cathedral of St John the Evangelist

Coordinates
-39.4889, 176.917
In one line
Waiapu Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist is Napier's Anglican mother church, a modern building completed in 1965 to replace the original destroyed in the 1931 earthquake, housing vivid stained glass and one of New Zealand's largest organs.

4. MTG Hawke's Bay (Museum Theatre Gallery)

Coordinates
-39.4887, 176.9189
In one line
MTG Hawke's Bay combines museum, theatre, and gallery on Marine Parade, rooted in an 1865 institute and a 1936 Art Deco building, reopened in 2013, strong on the 1931 earthquake story and Ngati Kahungunu taonga.

5. Pania of the Reef Statue

Coordinates
-39.4935, 176.9189
In one line
The bronze statue of Pania of the Reef, unveiled on Marine Parade in 1954, depicts the Māori sea-maiden of local legend. Often called Napier's Little Mermaid, it was famously stolen in 2005 and recovered weeks later.

6. Napier Prison

Coordinates
-39.4847, 176.9188
In one line
Napier Prison, built in 1862 on Bluff Hill, is New Zealand's oldest prison complex.

7. National Aquarium of New Zealand

Coordinates
-39.5008, 176.9189
In one line
The National Aquarium of New Zealand, a stingray-shaped landmark on Marine Parade, opened here in 1976 and was rebuilt in 2002. Its highlights include a 50-metre underwater tunnel, little penguins, kiwi, and tuatara.

8. Napier Hill (Bluff Hill)

Coordinates
-39.47975, 176.91053
In one line
Napier Hill, known to Maori as Mataruahou and locally as Bluff Hill, is the limestone bluff where European settlement began in 1855. Steep streets, heritage villas and a harbour lookout crown the city's original heart.

9. 1931 Hawke's Bay Earthquake Memorial

Coordinates
-39.491, 176.917
In one line
This memorial honours the 256 people killed when a magnitude 7. 8 earthquake struck Hawke's Bay on 3 February 1931. New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster levelled Napier and Hastings, and from the ruins rose the Art Deco city seen today.

10. National Tobacco Company Building

Coordinates
-39.484, 176.915
In one line
Completed in 1933 to designs by architect Louis Hay, this Ahuriri landmark fuses Art Deco geometry with Art Nouveau ornament. Roses, vine leaves and native raupo curl around its arched entrance, making it widely regarded as Napier's finest single building.

11. Daily Telegraph Building

Coordinates
-39.49, 176.9172
In one line
Completed in May 1933 after a construction tender was awarded in November 1932, to designs by architect Ernest Arthur Williams, this Tennyson Street landmark is among Napier's most flamboyant Art Deco buildings. Zigzag bands, fluted columns, a ziggurat parapet and a carved sunburst mark the former home of the city's daily newspaper.

12. Napier Municipal Theatre

Coordinates
-39.4908, 176.9176
In one line
Opened on 3 June 1938 to replace a theatre lost in the 1931 earthquake, this streamlined Art Deco auditorium remains a working stage. Behind its geometric foyer, around 1,150 seats fill a hall still hosting performances today.

13. Art Deco Centre / Napier Art Deco Trust

Coordinates
-39.4905, 176.9174
In one line
Formed from a group founded in 1985 and legally incorporated in 1987, the Napier Art Deco Trust protects and celebrates the city's 1930s architecture.

14. Emerson Street

Coordinates
-39.4906, 176.9168
In one line
Rebuilt between 1931 and 1933 after the earthquake, Emerson Street is the retail heart of Art Deco Napier. Its unified shopfronts, shaded verandahs and decorative parapets form one of the world's most complete 1930s shopping streets.

15. Napier War Memorial

Coordinates
-39.495, 176.9187
In one line
On Marine Parade, this seafront memorial honours the district's war dead with a wall of names and an eternal flame. Opened in 1957 and rededicated after later restoration, it sits among the boulevard's gardens and Norfolk pines.

16. Sound Shell and Sunken Gardens

Coordinates
-39.494, 176.9186
In one line
Completed and ceremonially opened in December 1934 on land reclaimed after the 1931 earthquake, the curved white Sound Shell is an open-air Art Deco stage on Marine Parade. Ringed by a colonnade and flower-filled sunken gardens, it remains a venue for concerts and the city's Art Deco festival.

17. Tom Parker Fountain and Colonnade

Coordinates
-39.4965, 176.9187
In one line
Opened in 1936 and gifted by outfitter Tom Parker, this illuminated fountain throws coloured jets of water into the night air on Marine Parade. Designed by architect J T Watson and set beside an Art Deco colonnade, it remains a glowing seafront landmark after dark.

18. Napier Port

Coordinates
-39.4748, 176.9191
In one line
Hawke's Bay's main export harbour sits beneath Bluff Hill, where a public poll in 1885 chose to move the port from Ahuriri. The breakwater harbour was completed in 1886, and today the wharves ship the region's apples, timber, wool, meat and wine to the world.

19. Ahuriri and the Iron Pot

Coordinates
-39.48146, 176.89796
In one line
Napier's original port, Ahuriri grew around the Iron Pot, a small inner basin named for the whalers' trypot once used to render oil here. The 1931 earthquake lifted the seabed, and the old quays now host heritage buildings, bars and boats.

20. Hawke's Bay

Coordinates
-39.41667, 176.81667
In one line
Named by Captain James Cook in 1769, Hawke's Bay sweeps along New Zealand's east coast from Mahia Peninsula to Cape Kidnappers. Its sunny Heretaunga Plains make it a leading wine and fruit-growing region, with Napier and Hastings as its main towns.

21. Cape Kidnappers

Coordinates
-39.6447, 177.0932
In one line
This dramatic headland south of Napier was named by James Cook in 1769 after Maori tried to seize a Tahitian boy from his crew. Its towering cliffs hold the largest and most accessible mainland gannet colony in the world.

22. Te Mata Peak

Coordinates
-39.70139, 176.90917
In one line
Te Mata Peak rises 399 metres above the Heretaunga Plains south of Hastings, its sheer cliffs and ridgeline tied to the Ngāti Kahungunu ancestor Rongokako.

23. Mission Estate Winery

Coordinates
-39.526, 176.86159
In one line
Founded in 1851 by French Marist missionaries, Mission Estate at Taradale is New Zealand's oldest surviving winemaker. Its centrepiece, the 1880 seminary La Grande Maison, was famously sawn apart and moved 5 kilometres to this hillside in 1911.

24. Napier Girls' High School

Coordinates
-39.4857, 176.9145
In one line
Opened on 29 January 1884 on Clyde Road, Napier Girls' High School began with 39 pupils under Mary Hewett. Its original building was so severely damaged in the 1931 earthquake that it had to be demolished.

25. Napier Boys' High School

Coordinates
-39.5145, 176.9138
In one line
Founded in 1872, Napier Boys' High School is among New Zealand's oldest schools. It moved from Bluff Hill to its 30-hectare Te Awa campus in 1927, rebuilt in Art Deco style after the 1931 earthquake, and counts Xero founder Rod Drury among its alumni.

26. Hastings

Coordinates
-39.64167, 176.84444
In one line
Hastings, 18 kilometres south of Napier on the fertile Heretaunga Plains, was levelled by the 1931 earthquake and rebuilt in Art Deco and Spanish Mission style. Surrounded by orchards and vineyards, it is one of New Zealand's great food-producing centres.

27. Clive

Coordinates
-39.58333, 176.91667
In one line
Clive sits roughly halfway between Napier and Hastings, beside Te Awa o Mokotuararo, once the Clive River. Named after Robert Clive of India, this small Hawke's Bay town of around 2,000 people has hosted a rowing regatta since 1872.

28. Ahuriri West Quay (waterfront bars & cafes)

Coordinates
-39.482, 176.899
In one line
West Quay lines the old inner harbour at Ahuriri, Napier's original port until the 1931 earthquake raised the seabed. Today its heritage warehouses house bars, cafes and restaurants, making the waterfront a favourite spot for an evening drink by the water.

29. McLean Park

Coordinates
-39.50194, 176.91278
In one line
McLean Park is Napier's main sports ground, a 19,700-seat arena on Latham Street hosting cricket Tests and rugby since 1911. Donated by the McLean family, it remains the beating heart of Hawke's Bay summer sport.

30. Westshore

Coordinates
-39.4778, 176.8823
In one line
Westshore is a seaside suburb on Napier's northern shore, its safe sandy beach created when the 1931 earthquake lifted the coast. Once a sandspit resort, it remains one of the city's most loved swimming spots beside Hawke Bay.

31. Taradale

Coordinates
-39.53333, 176.85
In one line
Taradale is a leafy suburb southwest of Napier, recognised as a town in 1886 and merged into the city in 1968. Its Gloucester Street village of cafes and shops, war memorial clock tower and garden streets give it a distinct, settled identity.

32. Greenmeadows

Coordinates
-39.526, 176.86159
In one line
Greenmeadows is a settled Napier suburb near Taradale, named for its native danthonia grasses and once an 1857 sheep run. Home to historic schools and the former Anderson Park racecourse, it blends garden streets with deep local roots.

33. Onekawa

Coordinates
-39.5084, 176.8902
In one line
Onekawa is a Napier suburb raised from the Ahuriri Lagoon by the 1931 earthquake, its name meaning salty soil. Developed from the late 1940s, it mixes the Pandora industrial zone, Pandora Pond's watersports and a young, diverse community.

34. Pirimai

Coordinates
-39.51319, 176.88317
In one line
Pirimai is a compact Napier suburb whose housing began in 1961, built on flats once part of the old lagoon. With its park, young families and tidy residential streets, it embodies the city's postwar suburban growth.

35. EIT Hawke's Bay (student quarter)

Coordinates
-39.5468, 176.8385
In one line
EIT Hawke's Bay is the region's main tertiary campus in Taradale, founded in 1975 as Hawke's Bay Community College. Set on 28 hectares of donated land, it teaches viticulture, wine science, nursing and trades, bringing student life to suburban Napier.

36. Napier Marine Parade Skate Park

Coordinates
-39.4975, 176.9187
In one line
Its sunken bowls overlook Hawke Bay, with one carved from a former aquarium tank, drawing skaters, scooters, and BMX riders.

37. Ocean Spa Marine Parade

Coordinates
-39.496, 176.919
In one line
An open-air heated pool complex on Napier's Marine Parade, opened in 2003 on the site of seawater baths dating to 1908.

38. Hukarere Girls' College

Coordinates
-39.6678, 176.8794
In one line
A historic Anglican boarding school for Maori girls, founded in Napier in July 1875 by Bishop William Williams and Samuel Williams. Though now based near Havelock North, it took its name from a hillside above the city and remains a cornerstone of Maori education.

39. Waiohiki

Coordinates
-39.5625, 176.81667
In one line
A rural Maori community near Taradale, set between the Ngaruroro and Tutaekuri Rivers. Its marae is the meeting place of the Ngati Paarau hapu of Ngati Kahungunu, a carved meeting house at the heart of a settlement known for its riverside golf course.

40. Bluff Hill Lookout

Coordinates
-39.478, 176.92
In one line
A clifftop viewpoint atop Bluff Hill, roughly 100 metres above Napier's port. It commands sweeping views across Hawke Bay toward Cape Kidnappers and the Mahia Peninsula, on a limestone outcrop once surrounded by sea before the 1931 earthquake reshaped the coast.

Roots Earth in short

Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people.

  • No account
  • Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection
  • Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities

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