Explore Hastings: One of The Sunniest Places In New Zealand

Hastings is in Hawkes Bay, on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is the second-largest urban area in Hawkes Bay, after Napier. It was heavily damaged in the 1931 Napier earthquake, but because there were no fires much of it survived and is still visible in the city's downtown architecture. This is mixed with Art Deco.

Hastings has in the past been known has being an unattractive place to visit, but with the councils push for central business district redevelopment the city is returning to its previous splendour. It is the food-producing capital of New Zealand and has many different types of food. Its cuisine is unrivalled anywhere else. It also receives 2200 hours of sunshine a year, making it one of the sunniest places in New Zealand.

Because Hastings was destroyed in the 1931 Napier earthquake along with Napier it was rebuilt in the stunning Art Deco style popular at the time. The town contains several excellent examples of this. The clock tower that contains the bells from the post office that collapsed during the quake. It chimes every hour on the hour
The main shopping street, Heretaunga Street, contains the bulk of the Art Deco architecture, so if your an enthusiast you can go past a walk down Heretaunga Street. The occasional art deco house scattered around town. Located in the centre of the city are Hastings' iconic Sheep. These sheep have, over time, migrated around the city, currently they are checking out the clock, as seen to the right.

Hastings has also had millions spent of redeveloping the CBD (central business district) so looks beautiful.

Several major features are:

The new centre city fountain.
The hand at the south end of Karamu Road outside the library.
Olive trees planted along Main Street.
Art works.
Many of the inner city designs were created by David Trubridge.

These include:

The steel and wood parkbenches.
The bike stands (They don't look like any bike stand you've seen before)
The street lights designed to look like leaves.
Many more significant art works were designed at the local Cicada works cooperative workshop at Whakatu.

The grills around the fountain.
The performing stage beside Westpak bank.
The curved streetlights.

Other things to see in Hastings include:

The unique train track that runs through the middle of the CBD
The apple trees in blossom
Hastings picks up the Hawkes Bay channel. Its channel 51. It can be a bit hard to receive clearly but with enough jiggering a set of bunny ear aerials will pick it up.

The Chinese gardens down Nelson Street are very nice. They can be found in Cornwall park with its large fountain. The gardens celebrate Hastings' partnership with its sister city, Guilian City in China.