Napier

We are staying in Napier at the ‘At the rocks’ motel which is absolutely spotless and everything you need is at hand. We were chatting with the owners who bought the place not too long ago and they mentioned that they used to be in service in London, after Sheila’s further interrogation we learnt that they use to live in a top floor flat in Eton Square and used to Butler for the CEO of Hugo Boss and they have also ‘looked after’ Rod Stewart.
He recommended a local fish café where we had some excellent fish, chips and mushy peas, the fish being Blue Cod.
The first full day we walked 4km around the Ahurri Estuary which was just across the road from the motel, lots of wildlife and beautiful views. We then went to Havelock North, a very modern little village. We then drove up to the Te Mata Peak, the photo is only one shot of a 360 degree view which was stunning, and we took our time taking it all in and were reluctant to leave. It was quite hot, 29C, so we visited the East Bay area where there’s a boardwalk around the bay and thankfully a strong breeze, hope you are not too cold in the UK.
The second day and another walk around the Estuary in the morning and then onto ‘Vince’s Wine Tour’. He picked us up at 1PM, a very nice guy and loads of knowledge about wine and the Hawke’s Bay region, after we picked up a Dutch couple and a German guy we tasted wine at 5 of the smaller boutique wineries in the area the last one was also a microbrewery I couldn’t believe my luck.
In the corner of the pub was a takeaway ‘station’ with 2L plastic bottles, labels and tops and taps with long nozzles to fill the bottles. The locals were coming in on a regular basis to ‘fill up’. The beer was very good, better than the ones I’ve had of late.
Third day and another estuary walk and then to two spectacular beaches, Ocean Beach and Wamarau Beach both almost deserted, it was a very windy day but it didn’t stop us spending some time at the East Bay Point again .
Napier town centre is full of art deco buildings and there are a lot of restored vintage cars driving around town. I also managed to find a Barber as my wig was getting a bit curly.