Labour Weekend in Hawkes Bay

Spring is here, and there's nothing better in Spring than a bank holiday! We had our first long weekend (since starting work oh so long ago) last week and since we refuse to pass up any opportunity to explore this beautiful country, decided to take on the 6 hour journey to Hawkes Bay on the East Coast of the North Island. I left work early on Friday to be met by Matt at our apartment with the van fully packed and ready to roll. 6 hours later we both had sore bums but had reached Napier, our destination.

Beautiful Napier

Napier is the (self proclaimed) art deco capital of the world - and we both loved it - we spent a glorious morning wandering around town admiring the 1930s architecture.

Stepping back in time to the 1930s

After lunch, we jumped in the van and parked up at a free site a few kilometres out of town by the beach. The best thing about this site (apart from not having to pay) was its handy location within walking distance of three vineyards!  

Strolling through our first vineyard

A ridiculous amount of tasting followed, with some purchasing of wine for the evening. We also fitted in a little bit of beer drinking, boule playing, chatting to locals and generally deciding that we had made it in life. If all Saturday afternoons could be this good!

Beach House Winery - delicious Riesling

Boule and beers round the back
of Clearview Vineyard

Back at the beach beside the campsite, and back on the wine!

After all that wine we didn't feel quite so fresh the next morning - but blew away plenty of cobwebs with a windy and sunny walk up to the top of Te Mata - a peak inland, near to Havelock North. The views were stunning and again we made friends with some locals. We reckon us Poms have 'come and chat to us' written on our foreheads.

Looking down the Te Mata ridge to the Tukituki river

A quick stop off at Countdown (ubiquitous NZ supermarket) for bbq supplies and we drove 2 hours back along the most stunning road to about 20km from Lake Taupo, taking a good chunk off the return journey. As chief tiki tour planner I had identified what looked like a lovely cluster of Department of Conservation campsites just a few kilometres off the main road, in protected native forest. Half an hour of driving on a gravel road later through dense wet forest (the sunshine had disappeared by this point - replaced by very heavy rain) we arrived at a deserted campsite with only one long drop toilet for company.

Even spookier than it looks!

Matt was still determined that the planned bbq would still take place. It was delicious!

This Pom doesn't mind a bit of rain

Spot the other Pom who does mind a bit of rain!

Nothing for it after we'd filled up on steak, chicken, burgers and bananas (yes - we did eat it all) than a very early night and an early set off next morning.

Huka Falls on the way back - awesome!

A slow journey home via Taupo, Huka Falls and a number of classic small Kiwi towns we returned to the big Auckland smoke completely pooped. But raring to go for the next long weekend - and even sooner - the arrival of Al and Anna in less than three weeks!

P.S. This blog wouldn't be complete without commerating a huge moment in the life of Carrie, our van which we were lucky enough to share with her this weekend.

The photos say it all... Well done Carrie - here's to the next 300,000km!