Out and About on Marine Parade (FREE / self-guided)

Date: Ongoing
Duration: 1 - 2 hours
Years: Year 9 - 11
Cost: Free
Venue: Start at MTG where you can pick up your high-vis vests, maps and activity booklets

Marine Parade was once bare shingle. How did it get to be the way it is today? The transformation of Marine Parade since the 1860s reflects the colourful history of Napier.

Armistice Day 1919 - On the first anniversary of the end of the First World War, Napier people gathered at the Band Rotunda on the corner of Marine Parade and Tennyson Street. At 11.00 a.m., trains, buses and people throughout New Zealand stopped and stood silent for two minutes, remembering the dead and giving thanks that peace had come at last. [Collection of Hawke’s Bay Museums Trust, Ruawharo Tā-ū-rangi, 5156]

Explore extraordinary changes to Marine Parade over the last 150 years. Who were the Clive flood heroes? How did a 200-year-old cannon end up here? Starting at the museum, collect maps and booklets containing historic images from MTG's archives to guide your groups on their way. Students are given high vis vests and in adult-led groups explore all the interesting monuments, memorials and structures along Marine Parade.

Set out in groups to discover some intriguing details of Napier's past, such as:

• The 200-year-old cannon and its connection to the 'Russian scare' of the 1880s
• The seawall that stopped high seas crashing all the way onto Hastings Street
• The coastline known as Te Matau-a-Māui, the hook of Māui
• The 10 heroes who set out to rescue flood victims but were swept out to sea and drowned
• The South African war memorial statue that lost its head
• The ship's anchor that bore witness to French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll
• The location of Hukarere Pā and why it had a name meaning 'snow'

For more information phone Sarah Fergusson on +64 6 833 9929, or book now.

20 September 2020

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