Marine Parade is a major thoroughfare in the New Zealand North Island city of Napier.
The Parade combines roadway and esplanade, running along the foreshore of Hawke Bay. It is a major tourist attraction, sitting close to many of the Art Deco buildings for which the city is known (much of the city having been rebuilt in the 1930s after the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake. A 3-kilometre long tree-lined ocean boulevard, Marine Parade features with fountains, gardens, mini golf, an open air auditorium (the Napier Sound Shell), bike tracks, playgrounds, The National Aquarium, statues, and spas. The parade is also noted for its cafe culture. [1]
Most notable among the statues is that of Pania of the Reef, a legendary character who shares the same relationship with Napier that the Little Mermaid does with Copenhagen.
The parade developed along an 1889 sea wall, alongside which Norfolk pines were planted in 1893. [1] Changes in the coastline following the 1931 earthquake and through natural accretion of sand have expanded the area along the coastline, part of which has since become a reserve, the Marine Parade Foreshore Reserve. [2] The southern part of Marine Parade forms part of State Highway 51.
The Pacific Ocean is easily accessible alongside Marine Parade, but swimming is not recommended due to a steep drop-off in the beach and a strong undertow. [3]
