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Published: September 18th 2009
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Surprise!
The beautiful gorge and waterfall that we stumbled upon driving to Napier Yes, we've been bad bloggers, and we admit it. In our defense, we've rarely been home. This, September 18, will be our fifteenth night at home, compared with 16 nights being spent elsewhere. Not that we're complaining. We've been up to some pretty fun stuff.
Our first out-of-town weekend trip here was to Hawkes Bay, also known as wine country. We set out late on Friday afternoon, and what a drive it was. Beautiful mountain roads, rolling hills, lush forests...ahh. At one point, we stopped at a scenic overlook just to stretch our legs. Wouldn't you know it, this virtually unmarked place had a nice gorge with a huge waterfall.
We arrived Friday night in Napier (there are two main cities in Hawkes Bay, Napier and Hastings) and had a fantastic dinner at Mission Estate Winery, the oldest winery in New Zealand. Smoked duck, our first NZ lamb chops, chocolate chili creme brulee - all delicious. The food was of course complemented by some tasty, and very reasonably priced, Mission wine.
On Saturday, we had an all-day wineries tour. We started out at Hohepa, a local cheese-making institution, as our driver insisted we have a little something to
Craggy Range
Craggy Range, the most modern and spacious winery in Hawkes Bay eat before beginning to drink. A cheese tasting? Okay, you twisted my arm. The cheese was quite good, and the shop was neat. All of their produce is grown using the principles of biodynamics, and everything that's processed is done so organically. We bought some olives and chutney.
Next up, the wineries. First stop was Craggy Range, which we had heard good things about. Probably the sleekest, chicest winery in the area, and the wines didn't disappoint. Neither did the vintner - the native New Zealander was a recent graduate of MSU's viticulture program, woohoo!
Our second stop was a winery called Vidal (that's "vital," not "vee-dahl" as I would have expected). Good wines, especially their newest, most brightly flavored ones. Their viognier was recently honored as the best in the country, and their restaurant (the oldest at a winery) consistently wins accolades as well.
We ended the morning with lunch at the Silky Oak Chocolate Factory. (It's a tough job, being forced to eat chocolate, but someone has to do it.) After lunch, we took off for some more wineries. Our group had grown over the lunch hour from being just the two of us, to
Mission Estate
The regal, beautiful Mission Estate winery - and that's just the front being a group of 8 people. This really worked to our advantage, because 4 of the others were travel experts on a work assignment. They gave us some good tips for other trips we plan to do throughout the country.
Anyway - on to Mission Estate. We were glad to go back because we A) wanted to purchase wine at cellar prices rather than restaurant prices and B) wanted to see the landscaping and architecture that we missed in the dark. So worth it - it's a regal and majestic setting. They actually have a big outdoor amphitheatre concert here every summer; I think Rod Stewart was supposed to do it last year but the show was cancelled a few hours before it was scheduled to begin due to rain and mud.
After Mission Estate we went to Unison, a small family-owned winery. These wines were big, bold, acidic, and, as the sommelier said, "chewy." A favorite was the "Recession Red," a blend of merlot and cabernet sauvignon.
We wrapped up the day at Moana Park. This small winery is like a hidden jewel. It's a vegetarian winery, which is to say that they use no sulfates
Grapes of Wrath
Come summer, there will be more grapes here than you can shake a stick at or other products in the making of their wines. I'm not sure whether they taste different for it, but those wines were pretty darn good, and the tour was cool too. We got to walk through the tanks and learn a bit about the winemaking process.
Dinner Saturday night was at a blah restaurant, but we were pretty wine-d out anyway so no big deal. We went to bed reasonably early and therefore had plenty of time Sunday morning for the Hastings farmer's market. Wow, what a great farmer's market. Huge, with all kinds of unusual offerings - a venison booth, a hummus booth, a booth selling snacks like mussel fritters. It was really great; if you like farmer's markets, you would have loved this one.
After that, we took a nice walk around downtown Napier, the art deco capital of the country, if not the world. Some of the detailing on the buildings is incredibly ornate. Everything is original and very well preserved. There is also a beautiful park in the heart of the downtown, as well as a nice variety of sculptures along the boardwalk of the black sand beach.
Of course, all good weekends
Cheers!
Our tour group, having loosened up and gotten to know each other a bit come to an end. We headed home, but not too sadly because we knew we'd be hitting the road again the following week. More on that next.
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Janice Martino
non-member comment
get ready...
...okay, that's it you two, I'm comin' over there!!! pick me up at the airport