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Published: January 14th 2009
On Monday, we got up at 5.20am to drive to
Picton in order to catch the 8am BlueBridge Ferry across to North Island. Emma was driving because Tim's feet were still not quite operational. We found a Bakehouse open very early and grabbed a coffee while waiting to drive onto the ferry. Once on board we headed straight for the galley cafe for a cooked breakfast (an essential part of any sea voyage).
The 3-hour crossing was very plain sailing and we were delighted to count seven penguins swimming in the water as we sailed out of the Marlborough Sounds into the Cook Strait. We arrived in
Wellington at lunch time (slightly later than expected) and hit the road for our 4-hour drive up to
Hawkes Bay. We stopped for lunch in
Masterton but the beautiful sunny day turned to rain just afterwards so we pushed on to
Waimarama hoping to get the camp-site set up before our pitch turned into a swamp. Tim's feet had recovered sufficiently to take over the driving and the last half an hour of the drive saw us leaving the more familiar
Havelock North and heading through some stunning remote countryside, crossing the hills
to the small beach settlement we had chosen for New Year. We had arranged to camp for two nights and then move to a luxury lodge (with a salt-water pool) for New Year's Eve and Day.
We've got pitching the tent down to a fine art and therefore had camp set up in no time during a break in the weather. With the camp sorted, we grabbed a pizza from the only cafe/diary/shop in town (surprisingly good) and ate it in the car, watching the rain.
Late evening, however, we were treated to a red sky, so we knew we were in for some more dazzling weather...
The next day we were up at daybreak and it was still raining, so we jumped in the car and drove back to Havelock North for breakfast. By the time we arrived the sun had come out and things were heating up nicely. We were determined to see the Art Deco town of
Napier in sunshine this time (in 2005 it was raining a lot) so we drove there, passing through
Hastings on the way. We mooched around the shops picking up a few trekking supplies from the outdoor shops
and some more sunscreen and blister plasters (in case the evil boots struck again!) from the chemist and then grabbed a coffee and sat on the stony beach.
For lunch, we drove out to wine country - rather optimistically calling into 'Mission Estate' (at least an hour's wait for lunch) and phoning the nearby 'Church Road' (even longer wait). We tried a few more places and drove all over the back country, until we stumbled upon 'Selini' who indeed found us a table after ten minutes. New Zealand's a completely different place in the middle of summer, especially during school and Christmas holidays and peak tourist season. We're used to walking into empty restaurants, choosing our table and waiting no time at all for anything! Still, it's nice to see a few people around, even if we have to share the roads with them and occasionally wait up to 30 seconds to make a turn at a T-junction.
Anyway, we had an excellent late afternoon lunch, sitting by the vines and ran inside a couple of hours later as a tremendous tropical thunderstorm came in. As it was decidedly wet we popped into the cinema in Havelock North
to watch
Madagascar 2 and by the time we were finished the storm had gone. We drove back via the Mount Erin lookout and then went down to
Ocean Beach to watch the surfers at sunset.
The next morning (New Year's Eve) we slept in until 7.15am and then packed up the camp and moved to 'Airini Lodge' where we were booked in for two nights. We decided to make one last run back up to Havelock North, took fish and chips up onto the top of 'Te Mata' peak and then stopped back in town to stock up on food and beverage for New Year. That night we barbecued at the lodge, had an excellent Mendoza Malbec during the evening, went for a walk on the beach in the dark with all the other revellers and opened a bottle of French Champagne at midnight. We don't normally buy imported wine as a) the NZ stuff is so good and b) imports are expensive, but as it was New Year we made an exception.
On New Year's Day, as planned, we did very little - reading by the pool, spending the afternoon on the beach and joining the
owners of the lodge and their friends for a barbecue in the evening (complete with home-grown new potatoes and freshly caught Groper fish).
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Rob
non-member comment
Hawkes Bay
I have a very similar picture of Craggy range taken when i was there. I could have warned you about Mission, there's always a wait, Craggy is much nicer to eat and its on the way back from the beach