Napier is a cool Art Deco city situated in Hawkes Bay on the east coast of the north island. It’s so nice to get to see the place with locals as I didn’t have to do any planning for this part of my trip. I feel like lady muck getting chauffeured around since I got picked up in Auckland and now I’m at Wynn & Karina’s, I could easily be at home and I can do my washing!!
One of the most impressive sites out this neck of the woods is Cape Kidnappers which is the headland of an 8km peninsula jutting into The Pacific Ocean. It’s a long hike out there and it has to be well timed with low tides so the best way to get out there is by quad bike. Now it just so happens that my hosts have a quad bike so we saddle up and off we go…
As we’re riding along looking at the beautiful scenery, I’m thinking to myself that I should have named this blog “Nervous Nelly goes on an Adventure”. I’m holding on for dear life thinking I’m going to fall off the back of this thing and I realize although I do lots of adventurous things on my travels I’m afraid of everything!!! I’m afraid in the dark, I’m afraid of the water, I’m afraid of speed going downhill on a bike, I’m afraid of spiders, I’m afraid of falling and clearly I’m afraid of quad bikes [Anne Keogh – flashback me & you on quads circa 2004!] – it’s amazing that I do half the things I do – I suppose it’s all relative but anyway I’m trying to be braver!!! Oh just for the record I’m not afraid of rollercoasters – love them!! Anyhooo I digress…. so we are flying over gravel and rocks along Cape Kidnappers and once I get over the initial fear of flying off the back and smashing my head against a rock, I really enjoy it and even manage to loosen my death grip to take some photos….
At the end of the headland is a gannet reserve and we see lots of the birds
A jump shot cos why not
On Friday evening the newlyweds have some friends over for a bbq. The grub was delicious and there was a lot of particularly good red wine had… hmm tomorrow will be interesting!
It’s Saturday morning and that means parkrun. There’s a local one in Anderson park just five minutes from the house so off I set, hangover in tow but determined not to miss this second of my trip so far. It’s an 8am start but it’s already hot.. there’s another international visitor today from Aberdeen and it’s great to have some company for the run. Her husband kindly took a photo of us after finishing… can you tell we are glistening!
Today we are heading into town to see the parade as it’s the Art Deco festival. After the earthquake in 1931 the whole town had to be rebuilt and it was done in the Art Deco style. Now all the building fronts are protected. Town is packed and nearly everyone is dressed up so we join in the festivities:
We line up for the parade of old cars which is great fun to watch… apparently there’s over 300 cars in town for this – it’s a huge annual affair… we don’t stay to see all of them as we need a curer (you know yourself)!!
As we walk through the streets and see the Art Deco buildings we pass a bookshop which is always hard for me to pass by so we pop in. I promised myself I wouldn’t buy any books on this trip (everything I’m reading is either on kindle or ebooks) but I get chatting to the author who tells me he wrote this book which is inspired by his maternal grandparents… girls meets priest and falls in love… it’s set in Napier around the time of the big earthquake so I’m sold! [later and a few chapters in I’m loving it]
It’s very hot, very busy and we are all a little delicate so we decide to spend the rest of the day poolside reading and napping.. heaven!
Next day, feeling a lot brighter Karina and I visit the Hastings farmers market where we have a delicious bacon sambo while rambling around checking out the stalls and tasting as we go. From there we do a spot of shopping which includes a chocolate store and a local arts and crafts shop where I’m delighted to purchase a pounamu (greenstone) necklace.
After a bit of cool down time at home we head back out for a spot of wine tasting because this is something that HAS to be done when in this neck of the woods. We go to Mission Estate Winery:
This is the oldest winery in New Zealand dating back to 1851 and was actually a seminary in the last century. [It also happens to be where the priest from the book I’m reading studied]. It has a lot of character and nice views of the vineyards below.
We taste Pinot Gris, Savignon blanc, Chardonnay, Rose, Pinot Noir, Syrah and a dessert wine and all are really good.
It’s just us girls today so we opt to finish out the day by the pool, again reading and napping (well napping for me). We have a lovely chat over dinner and polish off the Pinot noir from the Mission winery … well it is our last night together!
Monday morning after saying our goodbyes, I get chauffeured to Bluff Hill lookout for a last view of the port and the bay before heading to the airport.
The airport may be the cutest I’ve ever been in. It’s really small, super clean, no security checks and you just walk outside to the plane about 15 minutes before takeoff… I wish I could fly like this all the time.
I board the small plane and am heading for Christchurch…. South Island here I come….
odohertyelaine 