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We've spent the past week in Hawke's Bay wine country staying at 'Gannet Lodge' in
Clive. The name refers to the large colony of Australasian Gannets nearby at Cape Kidnappers who are here pretty much all year round except May and June - still, this gives us an excuse to come back one day.
On tuesday, we climbed up and over the top of Te Mata peak (for fantastic views of the bay and surrounding region) and then down to a giant redwood forest, before turning round and climbing back over the peak to return to the car (a circular walk would have been nicer!). On the way home we treated our weary bodies to some honey-tasting at a honey farm and some wine-tasting at a vineyard. (We freely admit that we are not nearly as accomplished wine-tasters as we should be and therefore feel obliged to continue visting wineries until we bring our tastebuds up to scratch - it's a bind but somehow we'll manage). When we got back to the cottage we found Cat and Dan (we spent a couple of rainy and stormy days with them in front of a fire in Kaikoura) who were staying for
the weekend.
Additionally, we managed to: visit a Cider farm (good scrumpy and weirdly, a really good Passion Fruit and Cider blend), walk over the hilltops of an ancient Maori reserve, have several barbecues (including sunday 'roast'), visit the Hastings Farmers' Market (where we both tried Ostrich and bought a huge blueberry pie) and generally spend time relaxing at the cottage (reading, drying clothes outdoors, making friends with the calves in the surrounding fields and scaring family members with early morning and late evening phone calls from the other side of the world!)
The rains came again on sunday evening (and haven't really stopped since) and spoiled our breakfasting and dining
al fresco routine. We've divided our time between shopping (bargain USA and Australia Rough Guides at The Warehouse and much needed jumpers at K-Mart), cinema, getting Emma's filling fixed at a dentist (must have been the bungee jump trauma!) and some sight-seeing in the rain in Art Deco Napier:
Yesterday, we visted the sick and grotesque Opossum World, which is really just a fur shop with displays that attempt to justify the zeal with which these critters are trapped, hunted, poison and road-killed in this country...yes, we know that the whole of NZ is overrun with 70 million+ and they are eating through vegetation at an alarming rate and killing rare birds and eating their eggs etc. etc... we just don't think stuffed possums singing "On The Road Again" whilst sitting on top of a bubble car, surrounded by squashed companions, is all that funny...
The Napier museum on the other hand is excellent and tells the story of the 1931 earthquake that destroyed the town (and lead to it's reconstruction Art Deco style).
On a lighter note, we saw the NZ TV premiere of the second Star Wars film on TV last night and are now fully primed to see the new film (out this week). Incidentally, because of their close proximity to the international date line, Napier, Gisboune and Hastings are the first cities in the world to see the new day and therefore midnight showings will allow audiences to be the first in the world to see the film on its general release day...however, at 35 bucks each for the special screenings, I think we'll be waiting a few more days...
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