Wellington to Napier

Saturday 25 February 2017 - Moving Day Wellington to Napier, Hawkes Bay

Jeff forgot to mention in his last post that he was sounded out by a prostitute.   Yes, really, this happened on our drive on The Forgotten World Highway when we stopped at a small town for brunch.  I was in the coffee shop ordering food when a friendly youngish local woman, in very high heels (they had to be high to reach the bottom of her dress), came up to Jeff, seated outside, and said "It must be lonely travelling by yourself", to which Jeff apparently replied that no and his wife was inside.  Jeff here - So she repeated herself. So I said, trying to put her off "I only have a $2 coin on me and that my wife has all our money" She said "That's OK I've got change". Just then John came along so she was happy.

Balcony view at our place (Lomani Way)

The four hour drive from Wellington to our next AirBnB was on good roads along the central highway that winds its way through dairy and sheep farms. As we neared Napier, in the Hawkes Bay region, the crops changed to market gardens, orchards and vineyards. Beautiful ripe New Zealand apples adorned the trees as did the grapes on the bellies of vines. It's picking season, the weather is sunny and the days are warm (24 degrees). Our accommodation is beautiful, located on acreage overlooking a dam, it's very modern and spacious with 6 beds, 2 disabled friendly bathrooms and a very large living area. Our hosts, Christine and Darryl, are just lovely and the same age as us and great company.   They lived and worked for 10 years in Fiji and semi-retired back here 2 years ago.  If you're ever in the area, and want somewhere to stay, we highly recommend Lomani Way - but you will need a car to get around.

After settling in late afternoon we spent a few hours on the balcony overlooking the dam and the lovely view to the distant mountains discussing what we might do for the week we are here. I still had a $2 coin in my pocket so I suggested that we could go back to that town on The Forgotten Highway so we could get some small change we desperately needed. Anyway that idea didn't make the shortlist but visiting the Gannet colonies at Cape Kidnapper, doing walks around Te Mata Peak, walking a volcanic lake to the north, looking at Napier's 1930's Art Deco buildings and celebrating Julie's birthday at a local winery on Thursday did. Consulting the weather gods App on my iPhone we then aligned our shortlisted activities based on the forecast weather.

Sunday 26 February - Te Mata Peak - this lies just to the south of Napier near Havelock North and is the highest peak in the area at 399 metres. Several great walking tracks leave from the car parks dotted along the sealed road that winds its way to the top. First a visit to the top to look at the spectacular views, then part way down we pulled in to a carpark and decided to do the Yellow Track, one of five circular walking tracks that are crisscrossed by mountain bike tracks.

Te Mata Peak

Being good weather and a Sunday the place was busy, but a good busy, so we were able to watch mountain bikers career down the hills while we walked the relatively quiet track along sandstone cliffs and through 200+ year old red pine forests.  Mind you somehow we lost the Yellow Track and ended up returning on the more rigorous Blue Track.  

Te Mata Peak walk

Cape Kidnappers walk

Well that didn't go so bad so we were up for some more exploring so the next activity was a walk along the beach at Clifton towards Cape Kidnappers below some pretty spectacular cliffs. This was the start of the walk to the Gannet colonies but as the tide was coming in we only did about 3 kilometres just to get a feel of what the beach might be like when we were to do the full walk.

Toothpaste everywhere

The full walk was the next day - a whole 21.4 kilometres of it - along sandy and pebbly beaches around headlands with the towering cliffs above us all the way and was just beautiful. We had to time our start to be no less than 3 hours after high tide so off we set at 10.22 am.  The day was warm with a light breeze and slightly cloudy. At Cape Kidnappers there are four colonies of breeding Gannets (which belong to the Booby family) - three are on the mainland (which we saw) and the fourth is on an island nearby. Having walked 8 kilometres to the first Black Reef colony, we decided to walk the extra 2 kilometres along a steep path up to the Plateau and Saddle colonies.  There are around 6500 nesting pairs in the four colonies. At 16 weeks of age the young Gannets, which have never flown before, fly to Australia where they stay for about five years. They then fly back and nest in these four colonies until they turn boobies up at anywhere between 25 to 40 years of age.

Cape Kidnappers

Oh the smell!!

First flight

Can't talk - Julie's counting

Beach walk from Clifton to Gannet colonies

Crash landing in the making at the first Gannet colony we  came to

Arriving at the first colony there were a couple of thousand nesting birds with their chicks dotted all over a crowded couple of outcrops. The Gannets were completely unconcerned by our presence allowing us to get up very close. The funniest thing to watch was them coming into land. In the air they soar gracefully over the waves and through the sky. When they come to land they seem to loose all ability to fly and end up face-planting into other birds on the ground, nests and, if all that fails, the ground in general.

Not satisfied with just one colony we continued on to a larger one two kilometres away located high on a cliff. "Why, why, why" I repeatedly said to myself as we puffed our way up the steep path to the top. Then it hit us - the stench from thousands of birds living without any sewerage system at all for the last 150 years and it was like sniffing concentrated vinegar. The wind was blowing just the right way for anyone (including us) coming up the steep path over the crest of the headland and breathing deeply from the climb. Actually it was like pouring concentrated vinegar down each nostril - got the picture yet? 

On the way home

However, even for us non-twitchers, the experience was pretty special. The whole headland was covered with parent birds and their chicks, each fighting with their neighbour while looking out to sea looking forward to getting away from the stench they were living in. The adolescent chicks were regularly flapping their wings, each time gaining a little more strength for their upcoming flight to Australia. We were even lucky enough to see some maiden flights too. After about half an hour we left what looked like a giant testing ground for toothpaste and headed back home along the beach, under the spectacular cliffs that overlooked the stunningly beautiful smooth waters of the sea. Towards the end we were too tired to even bother saying "Oh wow isn't this beautiful". Anyway it had been said so many times before.  Six hours after we had left our parked car, we returned rather foot weary but very pleased to have completed the walk and not to have taken one of the various tourist rides available to get to the Gannet colonies.

Aniwaniwa Falls in Te Urewera Park

The next day we headed north from Napier for about 1.5 hours to a crater lake in Te Urewera Park. The Park was previously a National Park but, under a lot of pressure from local Maori tribes, the Government handed it back to the original 'owners'. A new stylish air-conditioned centre was built for all the tribes where today they sit and argue about what to do with this beautiful area. Meanwhile outside all the DOC (Department of Conservation) infrastructure is deteriorating including the signage and paths.

The old 100 year old Maori designed DOC Information Centre is closed and deteriorating while the new building down where the tribal discussions are taking place does not offer any information to visitors coming here from all around the world. We did do a few walks to waterfalls and the lake's edge but other than that we basically wasted our time going there as we couldn't find out what there was to do.  Mind you, we did find an excellent pie shop/bakery at Wairoa recommended by Lonely Planet where we stopped for morning tea and then a very late lunch so all was not wasted.

Art Deco on wheels in central Napier

Thursday 2 March - It's Julie's birthday - again, I'm sure she has more than one a year. The morning was spent wandering the central streets of Napier admiring the Art Deco buildings from the 1930's. Napier was flattened by an earthquake in February 1931 and Art Deco was in at the time. 160+ buildings were built using this architectural style in the rebuild of Napier with over 130 still standing. Napier has cleverly protected the remaining buildings and a whole tourist industry thrives on the 1930's era. A cruise ship was in today and the passengers were all out taking in the sights while they forked out their money for guided tours, vintage car drives, rides in an Art Deco bus and all manner of things Art Deco.

'The' place for dining is the Mission Winery so we had lunch there and celebrated Julie's birthday. The early early lunch sitting - 11:15am - was the only time available as Art Deco either bores people or makes them hungry, either way they want lunch in their droves from 1pm.

Dining by ourselves before the restaurant quickly filled up

Julie's birthday lunch

Beijing carpark at the end of our lunch

We started dining literally by ourselves on the terrace that over looks the lawns that overlook Napier in the distance. We were the second car in the carpark. By the time we left the restaurant was packed, the wine tasting was packed, people were being turned away and the carpark resembled Beijing peak hour. Both the food and wines were superb. 























On our last day in Napier we wanted to go back to Te Mata Peak and do some more walks.

Start of Te Mata Peak walk

Views from our walk

Morepork watching us go by.

This time it was less crowded and the weather was just perfect. Having been here before we chose a walk (the Yellow Trail again but we headed off in a different direction and didn't get lost this time) that allowed us to take in the wonderful views this area has to offer. The trail took us along a grassy ridge below colourful limestone cliffs, down through giant 200 year old red pines and unfortunately back up the mountain again. With this great walk under our belts we were well satisfied with our time in the region.

Next day we packed up, said goodbye to our great hosts and hit the road again this time heading to Lake Tarawera near Rotorua for four nights

So here ends yet another Post. 

Hope you enjoy it.

JeffnJulie - the Grey Gonads