Hawkes Bay

---

The sky was overcast when we set out this morning on our sight seeing tour of Hawkes Bay. First stop was Hastings which had been rebuilt in a similar fashion to Napier. The town has a clean fresh look with lots of hanging baskets and flower beds, just the sort of place us oldies would like to live.

We then drove up to Te Mata in order to get a 360 degree view of the bay and adjoining countryside. However the occasional low cloud obscured some of the panorama.

We then went north on part of the Pacific Coast Highway to Waipatiki beach. The final part of this journey took us over a steep pass before descending to the shore. The effort was rewarded with a lovely beach butressed at each end by high cliffs, but deserted as no one lives within miles.

Back to Napier to pack our bags for tomorrow's trip up to the Coromandel peninsular

---