Napier

Guided walks leave from the Art Deco Centre and point out geometric ornament, some of it blended with Maori patterns, on buildings put up in the same few post-quake years. Some are led by guides in 1930s dress, and the vintage car tours need booking.

A seafront road lined with Norfolk pines; the beach is shingle with heavy surf, made for walking rather than swimming. Beside the road stands a bronze of Pania, a sea maiden from Maori legend, stolen in 2005 and found again some time later.

Marine Parade's southern end holds this aquarium, whose tunnel tank sends sharks and rays gliding above visitors. A darkened room shows nocturnal kiwi, and arriving at feeding time gets you a talk with it.

The hill behind Havelock North, where a sealed road reaches the top, with a sheer limestone face to one side and plains and sea to the other. In a suitable wind paragliders step off the edge, and the car park fills at sunset.

Thousands of pairs of Australasian gannets nest on the clifftops at the cape's tip, the largest mainland colony. The beach route is often shut by tides and rockfall, so a vehicle tour over private farmland is safer. Tours run only in the breeding season.

From the hilltop north of the centre the port's container wharves and the curve of Hawke Bay lie spread out. The earthquake lifted the seabed and added land, and from here you can see the airport and suburbs built on that new ground.

Napier's old port quarter, where restaurants and bars in converted wharf stores run along the water. The earthquake raised the lagoon here and drained the sea from it, and the channel that remains moors fishing boats and yachts.

Flat cycle paths spread widely over the district, linking seafront, stopbanks and vineyards. The favourite route rents a bike in town and calls at a few wineries, and hire shops fit a basket for any bottles you buy.

On Sunday mornings it sets up under trees on the Hastings showgrounds lawn, and only those who grow or make the goods may sell. The fruit changes with the season, and bread and strawberries are gone unless you come at opening.

A museum and gallery in the centre, where the 1931 earthquake room brings back that morning through survivors' voices and photographs of fallen streets. The quake struck at 10:47am and shook the ground for over 2 minutes.

Rebuilt after the 1931 earthquake alongside Napier, neighbouring Hastings mixed much more Spanish Mission into its art deco: white walls, red tiles, arched windows. Start at the clock tower square and walk the blocks, with fewer crowds than Napier.

Hawke's Bay's tallest waterfall, dropping 58m off a limestone cliff in the Boundary Stream reserve inland to the north. The track crosses farmland into bush, roughly a two-hour return. A spell of dry weather shrinks the flow, so come the day after rain.

A lake beside State Highway 2, about 40 minutes north of Napier, with walking tracks and a campsite. A book by the farmer who worked this land made it famous in New Zealand natural history. Stop at a lakeside picnic table and watch black swans drift.