We arrived in Napier still feeling a bit battered and bruised from Tongariro, and had already decided to use that to justify doing anything we wanted in Napier. The first thing we did was to continue our wine tour of New Zealand by heading to the Urban Winery (a recommendation from Finny & Stu) for their live music night.
It became quickly apparent we’d accidentally walked into a Teachers Christmas Party. They never explicitly said they were teachers, but you could just tell. It’s a very unique combination of dress sense, dance moves and letting off a-bit-too-much steam. It only took 1.5 wines for Andrew to join them.
The following day we were due to meet up with another couple from Cardiff who have been working in Napier for the last few months. Emily & Simon took us on a grand tour of the Hawke’s Bay region. We started off in Hasting’s market where we filled up on tasters from each stall, bought some honey for our journeys (peanut butter sandwiches have worn thin quickly), and then accidentally stumbled into a dog show.
We then went to Te Mata peak to have a lookout over the area. We’d initially ruled this out as an activity post-tongariro but quickly changed our minds when we realised can drive almost to the top.
Next stop was Clearview Winery (this is now mainly a blog about wine) where we had a free tasting session. The sommelier was very knowledgeable, and knew all sorts of words like peachy, oaky, tannins and ‘pairing’. We nodded along whilst committing various faux-pas and then just pointed like chimps to the bottle we wanted a glass of. It did indeed taste like wine.
We rounded off the day trip with a beach BBQ ‘paired’ with some L&P (which is like 7up but more delicious). Andrew also got to try some Kombucha – which is a NZ fizzy probiotic drink. It tastes better than it sounds, and he’s decided to try the whole range.
The wind threatened to give our labours to the Seagulls, who were lurking and squabbling over who would get the first crumbs, but our frantic waving and death stares fended them off for long enough.
Overall we felt our first day in Napier had showcased a lovely sleepy ‘art deco’ seaside town.
What a difference 24 hours, and a passenger cruise ship docking at the harbour, can make. The next day we decided to explore Napier, along with the 4000 other people who had just disembarked. We therefore opted to get ahead of the crowds by walking up to Bluff Hill viewpoint.
On the way back down we stumbled across this little fella.
Frances nearly stepped on him whilst walking down the path. We initially thought he’d fallen out of a nest, but several quick Google’s later decided he was a fledgling learning to fly, and concluded he was safe as his parents were still around. He still needed rescuing from the cruise ship hordes that were about to arrive, so we quickly shepherded him out of the path.
Exhausted from operation bird rescue we stopped off for a coffee and a DIY doughnut.
We had a final trip to the MTG museum to see some Maori art, and learn all about the earthquake in 1931 that destroyed the original Napier – it has since been rebuilt in the previously mentioned Art Deco style. The highlight of the museum though was that they’d rigged an interactive Fruit Ninja game, which Frances was champion of.
That brought our time in Napier to a close, and we’ve now headed down to Wellington, New Zealand’s Capital. We’ll post another update in a few days.
There & Back Again 