Napier

Since we have a few weeks before Bree starts school and Russ has to head back home we decided to do some exploring and see a little of the North Island. Bree wants to go to beaches, I want to see agricultural areas and Russ wants mountains and hiking; fortunately in New Zealand you can do all of this at the same time.

We left Palmerston North and headed out to Napier which is on the east coast. A beautiful town know for its art deco architecture as it was rebuilt in the 1930s after being destroyed by an earthquake. We camped out near the swimming beach and Bree got acquainted with surf. She was pretty scared at first but by the second day she was on the boogie board and swimming out in the waves. She got came off her board once and went through a bit of a spin cycle which has made her a little more cautious again.

Yesterday we took a drive out to Havelock North and went up Te Mata Peak which has a beautiful view of the Hawke’s Bay area. The peak has numerous trails and Russ decided to go for a mountain bike while Bree and I went for a hike. He had to ride up the road to the peak and then take the mountain bike trail down to the main car park at the bottom. It was a bit of a rough start for biking since the trail was steep off the top and somewhere on the way down he missed the mountain bike trail turn and ended up on the walking trails. No riding is allowed on these trails so he had a nice hike (carrying his bike) back to the car!

After Russ’ experience I opted for a trail run instead. After several months of no running this was quite a shock to my system. The area is similar to Kenna Cartwright Park but instead of fairly level trails they all seem to go straight up and straight down (or maybe that was just the trail I selected). Anyways my legs got quite a shock and after the run I felt I deserved a nice lunch at one of the nearby wineries.

The Hawke’s Bay area is renowned for its wineries and looks a lot like the Okanagan area in BC with dry grasslands surrounding bright green vineyards. We checked out the Black Barn Vineyard, learned a little about wine growing in the region and sampled some of their wines. The rest of the afternoon was spent at the beach and today we packed up and are heading further north up the coast to Gisborne.