Just across the road from Opossum World is Marine Parade, which comprises some landscaped gardens, an art deco Soundshell, Marine World and, of course, the iconic statue of Pania. The whole complex has a slightly 1950s-ish air to it. The beach itself is probably not the most attractive in NZ: the sand is pebbly and grey and the current is too strong for swimmers. The statute of Pania was stolen and returned a little while ago (question: how on earth did they remove this thing? it looks pretty heavy to me!) The rather vacuous and sentimentalised Pania statue commemorates the Maori story, 'Pania of the Reef', in which Pania becomes the reef (sorry, I'm a bit hazy on the details, but I'm sure you can google it). The memorial to the 'Veronica' is from the people of Napier to the sailors of HMS Veronica, a ship that was moored in port the day of the Napier earthquake. The sailors assisted in the rescue and clean-up of the central part of the town.
2 comments:
A more positive way of describing the pania statue than 'vacuous and sentimentalised' would be kitsch, of which pania is an outstanding example.
don't you think the statue has kitsch value precisely because she is vacuous and sentimentalised??
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