Tomorrow we embark on a 5 day road trip through some of the more northern parts of this island. The first destination is Mahia Beach, where we will be for a couple days. After that we are off to the Coromandel Peninsula, then down to Rotorua, Lake Taupo, then back to Napier. Adios for now.

We made it to Waipatiki beach yesterday. It was everything it was hyped to be. I think this is now my favorite New Zealand beach. It didn’t hurt that I enjoyed the drive on the gravel road that was twisty and swoopy.

The beach is located in a little bay, surrounded by cliffs. On the beach the waves were perfect for playing in, the sand decent enough for sand castles, and the temperature just perfect to make you want to enjoy the water. I swam, bogey boarded, body surfed, built sandcastles, and buried Sprouts legs many times.

This past weekend was the Harvest Hawke’s Bay Wine Festival. We decided to take advantage of this and visit a few of the wineries.

On Feb 7th, the first we went to was the Black Barn Winery. We explored the farm market where I bought myself a tasty pastry, the looked around the vineyard and winery. We tried a glass of their Savignon Blanc, which was superb. I should have bought a bottle but didn’t 🙁

Next up was Askerne. It was blazing hot here (35°) so we didn’t stay long. We took a horse drawn wagon ride through the vineyard, watched the band a little, and tried a sample of something that was on sale. I didn’t care for it, so we didn’t buy anything there either.

On the 8th, Sox and I were sans kids for part of the afternoon so we took advantage and visited 2 more wineries. Mission Estate was a fabulous place, and we plan to go back for dinner before we leave. They have an obvious history there, and even had a mini museum inside. We tried some white wine there, a pinot gris if I recall that didn’t sit well on my palate.

The last one we visited was Church Road. This place was right next to the road, and didn’t stand out to me in any way. I tried a white and a merlot there, but didn’t care for either. We didn’t stay long.

If was fun visiting a few of the wineries. There certainly are a lot to visit in the area.

On our last morning in Wellington we decided to visit the Te Papa museum which is a national museum. This was a gorgeous museum that I would have loved to spend a lot more time in. We saw the colossal squid, read some books in the kids area, and visited Bush City (a collection of gardens).

We then had lunch in the cafe before loading up the van. I actually got to be the guy carrying their screaming child out of the museum. Sprout was tired and had had enough. Once he screamed loud enough right next to someone (who wasn’t looking) to make them jumped. I almost laughed.

In the car we headed for home, but we took a much different route. This time we ended up in a cool gorge instead of going back over the crazy mountain pass. I got to drive this time which made me happy.

The windmill farm (windwheel as Sprout called it) was pretty cool to see too.

Nearer to home we got back into the brown rolling hills.

After close to 6 hours in the car, and another stop in Donnevirke, we arrived back in Napier. We ordered fish n chips for dinner again, and it was absolutely delicious, and every bit as good as the first time.

After the zoo visit we wanted to have a quieter afternoon. We had decided to take the cable car to the botanic gardens.

Driving through downtown turned out to be a nightmare. It was gridlock for a very long time, and took us close to an hour to get close to the cable car, and to find parking. We did it though, and bought our tickets, and headed up.

At the top there was a spectacular view of Wellington’s port.

There was also a cable car museum at the top, with an old car to play around on.

Then there were the gardens.  They weren’t in full bloom any more which would have been spectacular, but the gardens are still beautiful. I would have liked to spend more time walking and taking pictures, but Beet was napping in her stroller, so I took her for a walk around, stopping at the observatory and planetarium at the top of the hill.

At the top there was a cool sundial.  It works through human interaction where you stand on the correct date, clasp your hands together and point them directly up in the air.  Your shadow points to the correct time.

It was a very hot day to be out in the sun, but Sprout still had a good time. He played lots on the awesome playground while Beet napped. Thankfully there was a breeze that day that helped cool us down. No breeze and the temp sky rocketed.

After collecting our car again, we set out for the hotel. We got a little lost, and in the time it took to get us back on track, both kids fell asleep in their car seats. To help them sleep and to help us see more of the area, we went for a drive along the coast. We followed the road along Oriental Bay, then into Evans Bay. Such beauty in this area. Hills across the bay, clear crisp looking water, blue sky.

We got back to the hotel after 5:30 so we went to München Burger across the street. It looked like a quaint, local greasy spoon burger shack. It wasn’t that good and was a big disappointment. Sox ended up having something else at the hotel bar.

That night while the kids slept we watched a movie, then called it a night. It was a fun filled day that tuckered us all out.

Morning on Feb 5 came and we hit the hotel’s buffet for breakfast. After getting fueled, we headed over to the Wellington Zoo to see the sights.

The zoo was awesome. The walk through it wasn’t too bad, but it was beautiful. The gardening was nice, the animal enclosures looked nice, and we actually got to see a lot of the animals. We saw gibbons, tamarinds, baboons, chimps, giraffe’s, a zebra, an ostrich, dingo’s, otters a meerkat, and lots more. The one animal I was really wanting to see was the Red Panda, which is a relative of the raccoon. They are also nicknamed firefox 🙂 Alas I caught a glimpse of one scurrying through the bush, and never got to actually see it.

Below is a Malayan Sun Bear, also called a honey bear. Gorgeous animals that seem very curious.

The zoo had a bunch of hilarious signs like this scattered throughout the zoo.  This was my favorite. Another good one was “If you feed the animals they will get sick and may die.”.

The giraffe enclosure was my favorite. Their were three giraffes there, and the way their pen was set up, they could get close to you. Very close to you.

We had lunch at the zoo. Sox and Sprout had hotdogs, and I found a panini in the cafe (I didn’t feel like anything on the menu inside the zoo). Sox was a little surprised at the color of her hotdog. Sprout found a new favorite juice drink too!

Feb 4 we drove from Napier to Wellington. The drive was beautiful, and it was interesting to see that all of a sudden the hills were green and not brown. We crossed some rain threshold along the way that was quite striking.

We stopped only a couple times, one of them being in Dannevirke for lunch. Other than that, we drove straight through.

Sox drove for quite a while as my mind needed a bit of a rest. Wouldn’t you know it, she got to drive this crazy, steep, windy, switch back pass that had very tiny lanes and lots of faster traffic. I was jealous she got to drive it. The hillsides were very steep, and extremely dense and lush. Scattered throughout the hillsides were really cool looking palm trees that are native to New Zealand.

Once we got into Wellington, the havoc began. It was raining kind of hard, and we were having trouble finding the street signs on the roads. There was a lot of traffic, and there were lots of one way streets at odd angles to other streets. It made for a difficult time navigating. We made it though, dropped our stuff, and set off for a bit of a walk.

We were staying on Cuba street and they have what they call a mall, essentially a pedestrian only area. We walked through here a bit taking in the sights (the rain had stopped).

Sprout was tired, so he was riding on my shoulders. A local person saw him and his face lit up. He looked up at Sprout, put his hand up, and in a loud voice said “Gimme five!”. I could feel Sprout try to shrink as much as possible. Not what that tired boy needed.

Kiwi’s are definitely very nice people. There are no problems asking for directions, or even starting up conversations. Makes traveling here a lot easier.

For dinner we decided on The Flying Burrito Brothers. It was an excellent mexican restaurant that we all thoroughly enjoyed.

After dinner it was time for the kids to bath and get to bed.

Surprisingly we got the kids to sleep at a reasonable time.

Here is Sprout sleeping on the bed next to Sox and I.

Final note. For a hotel called the Quality Hotel, that billed itself as new, we certainly found a lot of dirt, bad workmanship, and it was less than ideal for us due to the lack of a separate bedroom. Our tub was also missing the drain plug, and we had to call the front desk to get one brought up. I compare this stay to the one we had in St Catherines. The St Catherines hotel was much better set up for people travelling with kids.

Back on Feb 3 Sox and the kids were at the pool which allowed me an hour of so to do some exploring of downtown Napier. I had about an hour, and I managed a really nice walk, some shopping, some exploring, and even time to sit and enjoy a coffee. It was lovely. The weather here has been spectacular to say the least. I keep hearing reports from home on the weather. Last I heard it was 7° and raining. Here a cold had is low 20’s.

I am loving the coffee here, and haven’t had a bad one yet (except the one I made recently). At home I do love a good Starbucks Coffee, but with the plethora of excellent coffee shops, I can say that I haven’t been tempted in the least to visit a Starbucks.

Napier has interesting architecture too.  There is a lot of Art Deco buildings here due to their ability to withstand earthquakes.  Apparently during the big earthquake in 1931 lots of the Art Deco buildings survived quite well. There is even an art deco festival here.

Back from a 3 day trip to Wellington. We probably drove close to 1000 km’s for the trip, and it was fun. I am sorting the pictures still, and will post more about it later, but it was exhausting. Lots packed in, and our hotel room was just that, a room. All one room for the four of us meant Sox and I didn’t get to sleep all that well.

Today the Foxes set out on their own. We wanted to do a cheese tasting at Te Mata Cheese Company, and a wine tasting at Clearview Winery.

At the cheese place there were 6 cheeses we tried. 1 Sheep’s milk 2 Brie, and 3 Blue. All of them were pretty amazing. The Blue’s were especially good, particularly for a Blue cheese. The taste was there, but it wasn’t as strong. It is hard to explain, but I really, really liked it, which surprised me. The Brie’s were awesome, and one of them was on sale: 2 half wheels for $1 NZD. Yum.

After the tasting we had some coffee and snacks.

A short drive later we were at Clearview. This winery is across the road from the ocean, and had very nice grounds. There was a playground for kids which was nice and a nice outdoor restaurant.

The tastings were good too. This was the first time I had done a wine tasting and it was an experience. I liked being able to try different styles of wines one after another to get a good feel for what I like. Theirs were all excellent and many of them were award winning wines.

Lunch there was excellent. I had a marinated lamb loin that was amazing. Sox had the fish special which was Groper. The only downside was that our food took a long time to come which meant the kids got a little cranky. I would have liked to enjoy things a little more, but that’s life.

I committed a sin though. With lunch I had a beer and not wine. It was an excellent beer. Even though I had just discovered some wines I liked, I couldn’t pick one so I went with a local beer, an amber ale from Hawkes Bay Independant Brewery. It was an excellent beer.