Geysers erupting along the way....
A lunch stop at Lake Taupo with snow covered hills in the distance...
A lunch stop at Lake Taupo with snow covered hills in the distance...
Our accommodation here was in a studio in the garden of a lovely house owned by our host, Rachel...
It was located up the hill from the town in an area of beautiful Victorian homes and gardens...
It was a trek every day but is keeping us in shape...
Napier has an interesting history as in 1931 it was hit by a strong earthquake and was then rebuilt in the Art Deco style, making it along with South Beach, Miami one of the best places in the world to view this style of architecture...
Lots of old cars here as well, being used now for tours around the town...
Not only are the buildings kept in great shape some of the interiors have also been restored to the 1930s style...
Lovely cafes everywhere...
Down by the ocean front the Shell Band Stand is still used for concerts...
The colonnade built in front of the sea wall is very impressive...
All along the ocean are miles of walking and biking paths that are well used...
The beach is black sand and not suitable for swimming due to a large drop off which was created by the earthquake...
Loved this view of the ocean on another day...
It was a great place for walking so one day we logged 15km by walking over the hills to Ahuriri, a neighbouring town...
The marina...
It is a working port so the boats were lined up at the docks....
People were out enjoying the weather and the water...
No fish were biting as we walked along...
Part of our walk was around the Ahuriri Estuary which is now a protected space due to the encroachment of the town...
A lot of the walk was on boardwalk even though the tide was out...
Lots of birds including the white faced heron...
It was a lovely walk with very few other people...
It was a lovely walk with very few other people...
This went down well at the end of this day..
Napier is located in Hawke’s Bay which is a wine producing region so on our last day we took a wine tour to visit some of the large and small wineries...
We were a small group so got lots of attention and this guy at Linden Estates was very entertaining...
He also had the best tasting wine of the day at least according to me...
Beautiful vineyards everywhere...
We had a very educational tour and lunch at Church Road wineries...
Salmon and prawns with udon noodles...
Interesting history of this winery...in the 1800s a group of wine making priests from France came to the region to train young priests as well as to make wine. They were very successful at both, but a young priest named Bartholomew found a new partner and decided to branch out on his own so Church Road winery was started. As he got older and decided to return to France he sold it to a young local boy named Tom McDonald who ran it for over 50 years. It is one of the bigger wineries and can hold concerts on its grounds for up to 9000 people.
Some more pictures from the day...
She and her husband own and run Moana Park winery....
Starting to net the vines to keep the starlings from eating the fruit...
This young family has a very small vineyard and work full time at another. They are growing grapes with no pesticides or spraying of any kind.
The tasting menu at Trinity Hill...
Stopping for a cheese board...
And finally to the top of Te Mata, the highest point of land in the area at 400 metres above sea level...
At the end of a perfect day and a great stop in Napier, and now we move on...
No comments:
Post a Comment