Editorial: Cruise liner brings out the best

GOLIATH: Ovation of the Seas will berth in Napier today. PHOTO FILE

My route to work along Marine Parade yesterday was resplendent with families and tourists enjoying the sun.

Busy council workers were emptying rubbish bins, blowing leaves from steps and sprucing up the summery amenity.

One can only imagine the hustle is with a view to welcoming the screeds of passengers who'll today descend with belt-bags and cameras from the massive, and grandiosely named, Ovation of the Seas.

At the Sound Shell yesterday the masses of tourists from an earlier liner buzzed about the i-Site, where bus stops were reserved and traffic wardens helped foreign baby-boomers negotiate a pedestrian crossing.

They were then greeted by a flash mob of Deco performers, Deco music and vintage (Deco) automobiles.

While, from a local's point of view, this pop-up culture comes across a tad contrived, it's heartening to see the hordes of hungry seafarers armed with serious coin.

The area immediately surrounding the new Bay Skate park is looking fantastic. Grasses, young trees and landscaping has made the area spring from the parade.

Best of all, they've used native plantings.

To visitors, these endemic grasses and trees are exotic; Napier City Council has chosen wisely.

It should have a word to its Hastings counterpart which, inexplicably, has an aversion to planting native trees in its CBD.

Kudos to Napier for showcasing what we treasure.

Today, the expected thousands from the Ovation of the Seas are in for a treat - as is Art Deco City, poised to receive a spend of about half a million dollars.