Hi Clairebear,
The major conurbation in Hawkes Bay is the beautiful Art Deco city of Napier. Pristine buildings, lovely gardens and a fabulous seafront. Every February they have an internationally acclaimed Art Deco weekend festival, where everybody dresses up in 20s/30s gear, out come all the classic cars of the period and everybody parades on the seafront promenade, drinking champagne as biplanes cross the skies. Then after sunset, the Art Deco open air bandstand lights up and a full jazz band plays all the favourites of the 20s and 30s. Everybody dances, drinks until pleasantly drunk and nobody causes any trouble. Pure NZ heaven :D