Napier Information
About Napier
Napier (Ahuriri in Māori) is a port city in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. It has a population of 57,000. The town is 332 kilometres (about four hours) northeast by road from the capital, Wellington.
It has a population smaller than Hastings District, but as Hastings is administered as a district, Napier is the only official city in the Hawke's Bay region. 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. In October 2005 the statue was stolen, but it was recovered a week later, largely unharmed.