Napier

Marine parade along the waterfront
see all photos »

Napier is great --- it’s got wineries, great architecture, orchards/farms, breweries, and cheese. Sounds like a perfect place to be and talk about buying local – you can actually do it here!

First of all – the wineries are plentiful in Napier and the entire Hawkes Bay region and although there are plenty of other renowned regions in NZ for wine, Nancy was getting a hankering for some wine after all the beers in Asia. We visited two wineries right away upon our arrival to this beautiful seaside city (recommend Church Road for sure as it’s in town and it’s one of the oldest wineries) before heading off to dinner.

Art Deco capital!

A view of Cape Kidnappers
see all photos »

In addition to great wines, Napier offers great Art Deco architecture as the entire city was flattened in 1931 by a terrible earthquake causing many casualties. The city was rebuilt in just two years and the craze of the time for architecture was Art Deco. Most of the commercial buildings in the town center have many of those characteristics (zigzags, ziggurats, sunbursts, geometric design, and many other shapes and designs that I’ve never even heard of). We took a walking tour to see a highlight of the designs and learn more about it which was well worth it and helped us to appreciate the work that was done in a short period of time.

Pretty grounds at Mission winery
see all photos »

The remainder of our time was spent with a nice bike ride down the coast and around the harbor area, visiting more wineries (okay – it was seven in total while staying here which is a record!) of which my favorites in the end were Trinity Hill, Church Road and Clearview. In addition we made time of course for two cheese making shops and we loved Hohepa Farm and Cheese Shop as they have great cheeses and a variety of other good organic vegetables. Luckily, there were also two breweries in town of which Scott had to stop at one of them (Roosters) twice as that was his favorite and where you can dispense your own beer into a two liter bottle for takeaway. We also had a picnic on the beach with a beautiful view of Cape Kidnappers and checked out the great view from Te Mata peak road.

Great views from Te Mata peak overlook
see all photos »

Before leaving town, we stopped at a local avocado farm (114 Avocados) where Graeme gave us a tour of the orchard and some history on the farm and a lesson on growing avocados. He was great! Of course we had to buy some for the road, but not before we stopped to say hello to his sheep and to see one of his walnut trees he has on the farm. Two things we’ve never seen before so it was fun. Might again be useful if we live off the land some day……

Next we’ll make our way down to Martinbourogh (more wine) & Wellington…..

Scott trying to make friends with the sheep
see all photos »

Tidbit of the day: The 1931 earthquake lasted for a whopping 2-3 minutes long and registered 7.8 on the Richter scale. The land was raised by 2 meters as a result of the earthquake. Unfortunately, over 250 people perished between a few cities in the area.