Hawkes Bay Wine Country

Hawkes Bay is New Zealand's leading food and wine region and apparently has some of the best weather in New Zealand with about 2200 hours of sunshine. Napier and Hastings were destroyed by an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale in 1931, which resulted in the towns being completely demolished and rebuilt in Art Deco styles. There are also more than 40 wineries in the region, which is famous for the Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc grapes. We spent Friday afternoon visiting three wineries - Mission Estate (see photo), Trinity Hill and Craggy Range, which produce some great wines. I haven't been a fan of white wine for a long time but I found a lot of the wine easily drinkable (but then I am a bit of an alcoholic!). The wineries were a lot friendlier than the ones in Hunter Valley - possibly because they don't get as many tourists but the people serving us were a lot more laid back With the international luggage restrictions, however, it does mean that we can't take any wine back in our hand luggage, so we made up for it by tasting plenty of wines.

After visiting the wineries, we drove up to Te Mata, which is a mountain lookout in the Havelock North part of Hastings and there are spectacular views over Napier and Hastings and the Ngaruroro River which runs through Napier and Hastings (see photo).

The scenery in and around Hawkes Bay is very picturesque and varied, with lots of hills, shrubs and greenery but it lies on an earthquake fault. I had wondered to myself when the next big earthquake would be due in the region but I hadn't known by that point that at about 9pm on Thursday evening, Gisbourne, which is about 220km up the coast, had suffered an earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale. The news said that the shudders could be felt miles away, even in Christchurch but we were busy drinking the local glug and thawing our bones out in the pub in "Taumata..........etc etc etc" to even notice. Good job we weren't in the area when it happened - time for a quick exit!

I spent Saturday (22nd), the day of my 35th birthday, in the car driving from Napier to Wellington to catch the Interislander ferry to Picton on the South Island. The drive was pretty uneventful, but we were lucky enough to have lunch at what is allegedly New Zealand's best deli in Masterton - the Wild Oats deli. There was a much better variety of food than what we have had in other cafes, but nothing like the sort of delicacies you can find in delis in Europe. My brother keeps raving about steak and cheese pies, so we finally tried one here - not bad but not sure why it is so special. I am not surprised if I turn into a pie with the number I have eaten this week in New Zealand - what happened to good old healthy salads!

We didn't see much of Wellington before catching the ferry apart from having a coffee by the marina (and the view from the harbour is nice) but the main shopping street in the Cuba district is a bit of a dump and reminds me of Market Street in the Arndale Centre of Manchester. Anyone who has been there will know what I am talking about! We checked into our hotel just before midnight in Blenheim in the Marlborough area, which again is wine country with over 110 wineries.

When we woke up on Sunday morning, Blenheim was basking in sunshine - hooray! Blenheim gets around 2400 hours of sunshine a year and the first thing you notice about the Marlborough region is how dry the landscape is compared to the North Island. I much prefer the landscape in the South Island, with the mountains towering around you. Tramping here we come.

Our final stay on Sunday was in the thermal town of Hanmer Springs, which is about 90 minutes drive from Christchurch (see mum and dad in the photo above). The Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools & Spa in the town attracts visitors seeking the benefits of its natural mineral waters, which are drawn from a bore adjacent to the complex. It is surrounded by forests and mountains and the pools have nine open-air thermal pools and three sulphur pools (which really do stink). The pools range in temperature from 33-42° Celsius, which is supposedly perfect for soothing away aches and pains - I can testify to that, as the niggle in the back of my knee which I have had for a while seemed to get better. In desperate need of some pampering, my mum and I had a facial and a massage and then a belated birthday dinner. Lovely jubbly!