A self-guided audio walk through Napier, the city rebuilt after the earthquake of 3 February 1931 levelled its centre and killed 162 people in Napier. It starts on Marine Parade at the bronze statue of Pania of the Reef, with the iwi of Te Whanganui-a-Orotū and the founding of the town in 1855, and goes on past MTG Hawke's Bay, the Masonic Hotel of 1932, the T&G Building's domed clock tower, and the Colonnade and Soundshell built on rubble along the uplifted foreshore. In the grid of streets behind come the former Bank of New Zealand with its Māori carved motifs, the Criterion Hotel, Hildebrandt's Building with its wave panels, the Daily Telegraph Building and Waiapu Cathedral, raised over its temporary wooden predecessor. The last stretch covers Emerson Street, the Municipal Theatre, the former Central Fire Station, Clive Square, where the corrugated-iron Tin Town stood after the quake, and Napier Prison on Bluff Hill, before a separate trip of about two kilometres to the National Tobacco Company Building at Ahuriri. Cruise ships berth at Napier Port, and the port shuttle brings passengers to the i-SITE on Marine Parade, a few steps from the first stop.
17 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 205 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 26 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Pania of the Reef, MTG Hawke's Bay Tai Ahuriri, Masonic Hotel, T&G Building, The Colonnade and Plaza, Soundshell.
Former Bank of New Zealand Building, Criterion Hotel, Hildebrandt's Building, Daily Telegraph Building, Waiapu Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist.
Emerson Street, Napier Municipal Theatre, Former Central Fire Station, Clive Square, Napier Prison, National Tobacco Company Building.
The bronze statue presented in 1954, whose legs and skirt turn to rock, marking the reef of the legend beyond the breakwater.
The colonnade and dancing area paid for by the Thirty Thousand Club, its paving slabs bought one by one by Napier citizens.
An Art Deco bank whose carved capitals carry the Māori kaitiaki motif, with more than 20 Māori artists working beside the architects.
The newspaper's post-earthquake offices and press hall, with sunburst, zigzag and fountain ornament around the flagpole.
The garden square where the corrugated-iron Tin Town opened on 16 March as Napier's temporary commercial centre after the quake.
The gaol of 1862 on Bluff Hill, where prisoners carved initials, a sailing ship, horses and dolphins into the outer stone wall.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 17 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 17 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Napier — the Art Deco City after the 1931 Earthquake, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
17 narration points, including Pania of the Reef, MTG Hawke's Bay Tai Ahuriri, T&G Building, Daily Telegraph Building and Waiapu Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist. That is about 27 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 17 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.