A delicious week of wineries, stone fruit, biking, kayaking … with the bonus of puppy love
Hawke’s Bay is a large semi-circular bay on the east coast of the North Island that extends for 100 kilometers from Mahia Peninsula in the northeast to Cape Kidnappers in the southwest. The main and best known city (and where we stayed) is Napier, but close by are sister cities of Hastings and Havelock North, all relatively flat cities with hills rising up in the surrounds. There are rivers and estuaries and loads of orchards, farmlands and vineyards, making it one of the nation’s largest producers of apples and wine. The region has a significant Māori population. It’s not a dramatic region in terms of scenery, but rather a very pleasant and easily approached type of beauty.
Monday – Move Day
Up, pack, clean and on our way from Taranaki for a long drive to the other side. The drive around surf highway goes extremely quickly when not stopping to check out all the remote beaches – what took us a long afternoon is done in an hour. We did stop at beautiful Patea, with its cliffs, black sand beaches and $10 golf course with sheep for greens keepers.
Then it was a long drive southeast towards North Palmerston before turning northeast towards Napier. No direct route, but the roads are mainly good and less winding than we have become accustomed to. A fun stop at Tui to make our own billboard and then one last stop at Clive to check out the river, estuary and star chart before arriving at our next accommodation.
We (as has become usual) stayed in the “basement” of someone’s home. This usually means that they have a home on a hill with amazing views from their top two floors and a decent walkout style (no windows on back three walls but open to a courtyard or patio, sometimes with a view) from the apartment on the bottom floor. This one is really up a hill and we had deck views out over Napier to the sea, accompanied by a lovely host, a black cat and a high energy lab pointer mix puppy named Whitaker. (guess what color he is?) Our big shop for the week gets us home late and tired from a day in the car.
Tuesday
A slow morning catching up on laundry, chopping, finishing unpacking, etc. and then off for a relaxed stroll around Napier’s gorgeous Art Deco buildings. This area was demolished by an earthquake in 1931 and subsequently rebuilt all at once, leading to Napier and Hastings (the nearby city) being built almost entirely in the architectural style of the time. And when the depression hit, skilled builders from around the country gravitated here for the work, so the craftsmanship is impressive.
We had a good laugh at ourselves sitting on a bench admiring the sea on a Tuesday noon like old retired people, and then scavenger hunted a series of wall murals dotted around town from worldwide artists depicting the impact of humans on the oceans. Most are just plain depressing, but some are hopeful.
After lunch on the deck, we took off on our bikes to explore some of Hawke’s Bay’s 200km of cycling trails – a major draw for me to want to spend time here. Along the Marine Parade, past the Port (lots of timber reminds us of PNW river ports) and along the bay coast north. Fun chat with a kiwi sitting on the beach with his kite awaiting wind – Hale made the right choice today to not chase it. Learned our kiwi phrase of the day. His question “What do you do for your crust?” left us staring at him like imbeciles, so he rephrased to “how do you earn a living?”
Then through paddocks, around hills (which are rare in this mainly flat area) and through a wetlands area. This whole section used to be water and then the 1931 earthquake lifted the land. Now it’s a mix of protected wetland, estuary and, of all things, the Napier airport. Birds migrate here from Siberia and Alaska making our journey here seem even softer. A beautiful ride.
Wednesday
Started the day in a mundane way with cleaning up our mailbox. (We have a mailbox service in the US where our physical mail goes, they scan the envelopes, then we can decide whether to shred without viewing, scan the inside and then view or have the contents sent somewhere. We’ve tried to eliminate as much paper mail as possible, but insurance still seems to cling to paper, and then there are the physical things like voter registration cards and drivers licenses.)
Wonderful day biking south along the shoreline from Napier to Clifton. Lovely ocean views the whole way, along with pastures, rivers and small towns makes for a fun ride along the flat and well maintained bike paths.
We had hoped to walk out to Cape Kidnappers at the south end of Hawke’s Bay to see the large gannet colony with their chicks there, but the walk is closed due to a landslide so we knew in advance this wasn’t possible. Hopefully on a future visit! This time we settled for a picnic at the end of the road at the beach and then a yummy wine tasting at Clearview Estate (even served by the winemaker himself) before biking back north.
Thursday
S morning walk in Hospital Hill neighborhood and botanical gardens then we make a long drive north to the Mahia peninsula. It’s surprising how flat the Napier area is compared to everywhere else we’ve been in New Zealand (except for the bluff on which we lived (Hospital Hill) and Bluff Hill overlooking the port), but as soon as we left the immediate area, we were back in the rolling hills.
The peninsula itself is home to a small community which is a mix of holiday bachs and full time residents, with a larger number of active Maori meeting houses than we have seen in most places we have visited thus far. But recently there are new fancy houses being added to the mix because New Zealand’s first and only rocket launch company is now based out at the tip of the peninsula. It’s still a very quiet place and we had yet another enjoyable day strolling its empty beaches, climbing hills, picnicking and playing on rock formations along the shore as we explored both sides of the peninsula.
The big excitement was the bus whose driver made a bad decision and ended up stuck in the road. Half the town appears to be out watching and figuring out how to solve it – there’s surely no wrecker the needed size available for hours around and he was blocking one lane of the only road. They should be fine though since the peninsula is already filled with rickety one lane bridges and another one lane spot where the road had recently washed out.
After the too long drive home, we ended the day watching YouTube, which we haven’t done since we arrived. But we have a special reason – Stephen Colbert’s segments on his visit to New Zealand. It’s no surprise that he loves this place as much as we do. (Have you ever met anyone who doesn’t?) Although he did get to meet a few more famous people than us, we’re happy to trade our longer stay and the extraordinarily nice normal people we meet every day.
Friday
S morning walk in neighborhood and botanical gardens then we took off to the Clive area for a kayak. There’s an area where three rivers share one ocean mouth and we knew the paddling is good there because there’s not only a kayak outfitter but also the local rowing club. Sure enough, the two rivers we explored are both picturesque, but entirely different. One is surrounded by fields and lined with little shacks/docks that we guess are used for fishing, bird hunting and playing in the water. The other is lined with homes and trees. Even the water color is different with blue in the first and tannin in the second. Both are filled with jumping schools of fish and a large variety of birds.
It’s Thanksgiving in the US today and strangely enough, Black Friday here. (Ugh – Marketing and mass consumerism!) A great day for catching up via video chats with gathered family in New York and Indiana. We’re tremendously grateful for our families and their complete acceptance of our decision to travel the world rather than staying close and we’re thankful that technology allows us to stay connected. (We laugh with my sister about how far technology has come since our sad attempts to do Skype calls over lame internet fifteen years ago when we were sailing.) This year more than ever I am grateful for my siblings and acutely aware how crucial our bonds are. I never could have begun to address our shared sorrow without them.
We’re immensely grateful every day for the privileged life we have. We are extremely conscious of how very many factors beyond our control have led to our good fortune and of just how charmed a life we lead. We recognize vividly how little our hard work and disciplined saving actually compare to the larger impacts of the conditions of our birth, family circumstances and investment in our upbringing, and our luck in meeting each other. We don’t need Thanksgiving Day for that since we’re living on a wave of appreciativeness, but today we are even more aware of our windfall of family, friends and goodness.
Hale spent the afternoon relaxing and figuring out WordPress while I went to the grocery via a very roundabout three hour trek through the city to explore more of its overlooks, neighborhoods and beautiful buildings.
Saturday
We started the day with a steep walk to the Napier Urban Farmer’s Market and are delighted to find the season’s first nectarines and apricots. Speaking of charmed – two stone fruit seasons in one year for us!
Although all the bike trails in this area go past wineries, there is a specific “winery biking loop” and that was next on our agenda. There’s something like 30 wineries along the 50km trail, but we needed to stay upright and pedaling, so only stopped at three. Each experience was very different – the first one had live music, picnic tables and flights of wine served by a waitress rather than a true guided tasting. The wine was mediocre, but the atmosphere was fun.
Next up was a delightful small winery, again with picnic tables, but this time with the personal touch of a soft spoken kiwi delivering and explaining each wine to us. We couldn’t help but leave with two bottles. Finally last stop (as the cellar doors were closing for the day) was another small winery but with a boisterous and funny server who again took his time sharing all the intricacies of each wine with us. If the backpack hadn’t been full, we would have bought more than one from here too.
This region specializes mostly in big reds, but since we’re busy celebrating our second spring of 2019, we couldn’t seem to bring ourselves to buy one no matter how yummy the tastings are. Happily, they also grow fabulous Chardonnays here and their Pinot Gris and Rose are dry and delicious as well.
Sunday
First stop of the day was the famous and large Havelock North Market. Then Hale headed off to kite in the Clive area and left me here.
I first biked up my biggest hill ever to Te Mata Peak where I gave my legs and nerves a break with a beautiful hike. Then it was the harrowing bike down the winding road back to the pleasures of dedicated, flat bike paths through the countryside.
I stopped in at a tiny winery in an old church and spent an hour or so chatting with the Maori owner about his life as a psychologist in the prison system, their family experiences with the winery and interesting historical perspectives on entrepreneurship and agricultural techniques.
A windblown ride along the fields and river back to the coast where I met up with Hale and we drove home for our last night with Whitaker and his antics.
Wrap
It was fun being in a very different type of place this week. The scenery has been less dramatic, yet still pretty and infinitely enjoyable and accessible via bike, kayak and low key hikes. And though Napier is a tourist destination, we avoided the center on the cruise ship day and found it to be quiet and extremely livable.
We loved having pets as a bonus at our Airbnb. Spot the cat is friendly and mellow, except for the strong evening desire to come into the forbidden apartment with us. Whitaker the eleven-month old lab pointer is extremely excitable each time we first come home or leave, but otherwise amazingly good, heartbreakingly cute and completely hilarious. (Yes, we fell a little in love.)
Week 6 of our journey