Hawkes' Bay (and the Wines of course!)

---

---

DATE VISITED: NEW YRS EVE AND NEW YRS DAY: After another half day of driving down the coast from the East Cape we entered Hawkes Bay. Our base for the night was a town called Napier which was shook by an Earthquake in the mid 1920's and was flattenned as a result. Napier as a result of this natural disaster presents to the visitor a vast array of Art Deco architecture which was built shortly after the Earthquake. We have bumped into a few Kiwis approaching East Cape and this region who still took of rumbles today (and given the recent shake in Gisborne last week - a city just up the coast ) we didn't exactly feel relaxed driving to a fault line.!

The town resembles a Southern England resort (no pier or arcades! but a nice sea front with the gardens and parks of Bournemouth or Scarborough) and plenty of benches, gardens and cafes to view the open ocean. There is no beach here as such as it is a major shipping port - but away from the front Napier has a good shopping mall and a good range of restaurants and cafe's to keep the visitor happy!

We checked in at our Art Deco hostel

http://www.criterionartdeco.co.nz/ which really took us by surprise as it was bang in the centre of town and is as swish as a hotel with nice rooms a huge kitchen and loads of other handy facilities. After sorting our stuff out we headed to a local restaurant and had a fab meal (the first meal out in what feels like weeks)! This time we didn't care about the cost - even so the meal was reasonable at about 15 quid a head. After the meal we ended up chatting to a pair of Australians who were also dining there. They were so interesting and gave us loads of tips (and an address) for when we go to Australia. We ended up walking out together and up to the sea front where there was a band and large gathering of people for the New Years' Eve celebrations. The atmosphere was really nice and friendly - it all felt good 😊 We parked at a cafe close to the action and proceeded to guzzle a few more glasses of red before we said farewell. The fireworks at midnight were astounding and lit up the sky for a good 10 mins or so . The conversations with the Oz's plus the amazing fireworks and meal really made for a fab New Years Eve!

On the second day we strolled around the town looking at the Art Deco buildings and sunbathing in a couple of the parks overlooking the sea. We both felt a bit tired from the night before so it was nice just to relax for once and not drive to the next stop!

Tomorrow we are leaving this area via http://www.hawkesbaywines.com/eskvalley.asp to do another wine tasting session! (There are so many to choose from especially from this region but this was seems pretty big and reputable) - the name seems familiar doesn't it you!?

We are heading in-land to the Volcanic region of Tongariro National Park.

http://images.google.co.nz/images?hl=en&resnum=0&q=tongariro+national+park&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi I CAN'T WAIT!

---