We are packed and out... but not too far. Time for coffee - that'd be a flat white - and breakfast... and it's raining. We drove a few blocks to the Martinborough Village Cafe for both - in the rain. The breakfast was OK but the flat whites were large... in a bowl! must have been nearly a half-litter of really good coffee - so much that we asked to have the remainder put in a take-away cup to take with us in the car. No problem...
Oh... Martinborough, as a small place, didn't seem to have any wi-fi hotspots AND my Vodafone 3G service was, at best, spotty - no service to one or two bars... nothing I can rely on for send-receive. There, a few doors awe from the Village Cafe, was the town's small library... with - you guessed it - FREE internet and wi-fi service. I stood outside to 'steal' a free signal to get mail and post my blog pages until the librarian invited us in and pointed to a chair and table... "You'll find it more comfortable than standing outside." Very accommodating - very friendly... and the free library-provided wi-fi was nearly the best service I found since arriving.
The free wi-fi services in the country is, generally, not great when compared to NorAm or Europe or Asia... surprising for a country with all the technology in place but it needs to see ubiquitous wireless service as an economic advantage rather than a cost. But that's another story...
The previously collected Central Otago pinot noirs were still in a wine box along with several others which are, to my chagrin, to be consumed before we leave this marvelous country. It is obvious that additional luggage space will be required - a situation we were trying to avoid... but all good plans sometimes don't always work. We needed to augment the luggage set and Martinborough was not a place with a great deal of retail available. Locals traveled to Masterton or even into Wellington to shop... Masterton was on our route so a stop there was inevitable. Farmers - not a dairy but a NZ Department store chain - came through and after the better half checked out the luggage section, she returned to the car with "bag #4" (bag #3 was filled with winter clothes and left in storage at YVR). We were off again enroute north-east to Hawkes Bay and our Napier motor hotel for a few nights.
The trip was reasonably comfortable but seemed longer than it really was... guess I am getting more used to the roads and drivers so the fear-factor was no longer keeping the adrenaline levels peaked; we drove through many many dairy farm areas and, of course, sheep ranches. No major urbanized areas on the route we followed after our stop at Masterton. Road work was much more evident along these North Island trails, however, so the pace of driving was somewhat disrupted by the 'stop and go' nature of maintenance activities on a two lane thoroughfare.
At last, as the land flattened out to 'softer' rolling hills and terraced river valleys, sheep and dairy herds were replaced by food crops and as we passed-by signs for Hastings, we were greeted with our view of the first of the many fine vineyards of the Hawkes Bay region - the oldest of the wine-growing areas of NZ and, arguably, the best known world-wide. As it was moving into the supper-time period, we decided to push on to our Napier abode - on the Hawke Bay 'waterfront' in Westshore - and get settled; winery visits would wait until tomorrow. As we pulled into "On The Rocks Motor Hotel" (a reference to the beach - which is really well-rounded pebbles on their way to becoming sand - in a few thousand years, of course), the rain, which had been threatening most of the afternoon held off as we made our way to Napier, came down with a vengeance! After the now 'ritual' activity of unpacking bag#1 and bag#2, we ordered-out take-away food and awaited the promised sunshine of Saturday morning before venturing outside.
Dawn broke - grey, overcast - and periodic rain showers swept past us from the west on their way eastwards into the Bay. So much for sunshine! Reassessment of the old plan - visit wineries - led to the new plan - visit Napier, have something for breakfast, see some of the world-famous Art Deco architecture for which the town is known, visit some shops and then, maybe, if you're lucky... visit a winery or two in the afternoon... when the sun shines. Done!
Napier is a relatively 'modern' city - it's core was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 with great loss of life and was rebuilt in the architectural style of the day and is one of the best examples of the Art Deco style in the world. We viewed film footage and many photographs of the after-quake damage to Napier and surrounding area when visiting the Te Papa Museum in Wellington... quite traumatic for the country and the city people who, unlike the CHCH quake 80 years later, did not have the on-site organized rescue forces to remove people from fallen and burning buildings and rapidly address the many failed infrastructure problems. The Hawkes Bay quake claimed the lives of over 250 New Zealanders and the more recent CHCH quake has to-date toll of 200 souls... but the damage done to the central part of CHCH is consistent with that done to Napier and Hastings in 1931.
Napier's waterfront is the shoreline of the southwestern boundary of Hawke Bay; it has a beautiful gardened walkway along the beach and the main boulevard - Marine Parade - which boasts shops, small pensions and hotels, restos and a great opportunity to stroll... but for the rain, it would have been great! The low buildings (none over 5 stories) rise gradually back from the Bay shoreline into lushly forested low hills surrounding the downtown and its plentiful small parks, giving it an appearance of a cross between south-Florida pastel beach-house-scape and hillside Mediterranean villages - unique and altogether pleasant. Shopping for tourist and local alike is better than in other NZ centres of similar size.
That sounds so much like a travelogue... sorry.
After coffees, morning snack and souvenir shopping, it was time to head out into the countryside vineyards... and, after careful consideration of the list of wineries-to-visit (compiled by the aforementioned Timothee and other), we headed first to Brookfield for a tasting and late lunch. After a short drive southwards on several roads which became more narrow the closer we got, we arrived at the gate... only to find it closed for a private function. An Ah-hA! moment... it really does pay to call ahead... we then headed northwards to Mission Estates Winery, a very large operation with vineyards in almost all wine-growing areas.
We were surprised to find a large colonial-style combined winery, restaurant, museum and cellar-door on the side of a hill overlooking the large manicured property - this was the most commercial operation we had run across in all of our NZ winery visits. Busses of winery tourists arrived and departed... sales were brisk the young salesman noted from behind the mahogany tasting bar (salesman rather than wine-lover - clearly a job for him)... the restaurant was full with waiting line... visitors strolled the grounds posing in front of the fountains and shrubs and snapping photos... it all had the air of a carnival attraction rather than a winery. Oh... the wines I tasted (the better-half was not interested... she was somewhat disappointed with this un-Kiwi-like ostentation) were, IMHO, the most forgettable set of wines tasted on the entire journey to date. I'm sure the winery produces some excellent products but the tastings were not impressive and the salesman was perfunctory, at best, in his presentation. Enough said... we left without regret.
Traveling westward, now, along the Ngaruroro River to Fernhill and the small (recommended) Stonecroft winery; a study in contrast! As palatial and grand as the Mission Estates was, Stonecroft was small, humble and very unassuming. The artwork on the tasting room walls was made up of posters from wine festivals over the past decades and framed awards this winery had received for its excellent wines. The owner and tasting manager was leaving as we arrived but immediately turned around, welcomed us in and set up their 9 wines for tasting. The tasting room was small and not artificially cooled... needless to say, it was quite warm inside but after tasting the wines, it was well worth the trip. This 4-5 thousand case/year producer had won gold for several of his wines... and is reputed to produce the best Syrah in NZ (and I agree); his reserve gewurtztraminer was also award willing - amazing for such a low volume producer. When we mentioned our surprise that he had so many good wines, he told us that he had too many varieties under cultivation and had to take out a few... Stonecroft proved that the biggest were not always the best!
Next, we drove 'around the corner' to Trinity Hill Winery and proceeded to make the wrong turn - into the vineyard rather than the cellar door operation. We travelled through many vines... acres of them - before we emerged back where we started... and left TR without having tried their offerings. Supper was to again be a take-away order but this time from a 'gourmet' retso a block away from our room. It was reviewed well and the menu looked appetizing... so we ordered 2 full meals. Much to our chagrin, the delivery service was 'manual'... a poor young waitress, all of 5' in height, walked up the driveway to our motor hotel room with 2 full meals on a tray and she looked like she was going to crash & burn. That's an awful load to carry in a resto from kitchen to table but to walk a block in the rain with it was more that we had expected. She didn't seem overly concerned but did say she wasn't sure she was going to make it... anyway, the meal was excellent but we were even more impressed with the 'service'.
Sunday - our last day in the countryside before heading back to AKL for our flight. A visit to Craggy Range was the order of the day... an excellent winery and an award winning restaurant. We were not disappointed. A late lunch allowed us to sample the best this world-class eatery had to offer as well as the pinot noir (from Central Otago, of course) and their award-winning Syrah from their Hawkes Bay vineyards. The architecture of the resto was well in keeping with the surroundings - sheer ridge cliffs on one side; a trellised garden with vineyards on teh other and a great view of the rolling vine-covered hills beyond. We truly enjoyed the ambiance, the venue, the food and the wine - a perfect 'last supper' for our bucket-list trip.
Packing up for the next leg consumed the evening and a very early start for the long drive to AKL saw us on the road headed north-east at 0630... with the sun rising in the rear-view mirror and the cloud-shrouded and green-covered mountains of the Huiarau and Kaweka ranges before us, the early drive seemed like something out of a storybook. After navigating the steep grades, 'S'-curves of the main (and only) route to the center of North Island, we arrived at the town of Taupo - situated on the lake of the same name - a very large caldera filled with fresh water from the many mountain stream and rivers that empty into it. Taupo - a breakfast stop for us - is a Kiwi fisherman's dream... the lake is teeming with trout and anglers from all over the Islands make this a must-do destination; it also attracts numerous non-fishers so it is quite a bustling centre of tourism - more that we'd encountered since our Queenstown visit.
Taupo also provided us with our first view of the use if thermal energy; a number of steam vents (water evaporated by the very close magma sub-surface) is used to drive turbines which, in turn, provide electricity into the NZ power grid. Just need to be close to the volcano to make this puppy work...
Onwards to the north-east... and we made a slight unplanned diversion to the site of LOTR's Hobbittown - unplanned because the tour conductor (me) was trying to find a shortcut back to the main highway... and we ended up in sheep country again. This diversions did, however, afford the tour conductee (the better-half) the opportunity to find, try-on, and acquire something she had been trying to find - a wool-possum blended sweater; I was no longer an outcast!
We continued on to AKL without further incident... the afternoon becoming considerably warmer as we approached the city. On the only divided multi-lane highway we encountered as we entered the outskirts of the big city, the temp rose to nearly 30C - the warmest we had found it through the entire trip. Our hotel was air conditioned so we did not suffer long... and, that evening, re-packed all the suitcases - including bag#4 - for the early morning's excursion to AKL and then on to HNL. Up before sunrise, packed and ready to go, we departed to drop off the trusty Corolla which had been our carpet with wheels for the past nearly 4 weeks... and than the quick shuttle to AKL and the Air New Zealand departure lounge.
As we lifted off, we both realized that this small but exceedingly friendly place with the fantastic scenery, great wines and good food was far more than just a check-mark on the life-list of to-do's... it is a place that we can honestly say we enjoyed more than any of our other travel destinations over the years... and one that will be on our list of places to return to... sometime before we can no longer do so.
Next stop - Hawaii's capital and a 2 day mini-vacation...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Hawks Bay and AKL, North Island, NZ
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