Napier to Martinborough

After settling into the Edgewater Motel on Marine Parade and viewing the documentary about the momentous 1931 earthquake at the Napier Art Deco Centre we went for a walk around the town centre of NZ's famous "Art Deco" town.....

But by 5.30pm it was starting to look like a heavy downfall was imminent - and we were starting to realise that the Art Deco heart of Napier was actually pretty quiet during the week (I think the fun part of town was where we were at lunchtime at the old Port Ahuriri), so with rain threatening we took refuge at the Turkish Kilim Restaurant which was very close to our Motel....a great choice as it turned out as the food was great - very fresh and very light and flavoursome.  Afterwards, we got soaked on the short walk back to Edgewater!

We left Napier this morning in steady rain about 9.30am with an almost 4 hour drive ahead of us to Martinborough, the gourmet wine district of the North Island. Under clearing skies we had a short stop in Woodville on the A2 for a great coffee and an early lunch (making a point to avoid Woodville's famous "gourmet" cheese cakes) and then a much longer stop at Pukaha Mount Bruce, a wildlife restoration centre in a protected forest area administered by the NZ Wildlife service.  The main objective of Pukaha is to help restore native wildlife (especially birds) through breeding and incubation programs...but for us it was just as interesting to see an area where the great native NZ forests are being restored.

During our visit we were lucky enough to see a very rare Manukura, little white kiwi (under very low light because they are nocturnal animals), .....

 and a Kereru, the largest pigeon in NZ as well as a Tui, in the free flight aviary, along with a Korimako (bellbird) and a pair of native ducks (whio). Pukaha is a low key "tourist experience" but we really appreciated its authentic conservation credentials.

It was close to 5.00pm by the time we pulled into Martinborough, the so called gourmet wine capital of the North Island. We love our room at the beautiful old Martinborough Hotel, on the town's main square.

We enjoyed a glass of Pinot Gris (and Rob a Pinot Noir) from the local Ata Rangi vineyard (superb) before dinner at "Cool Change", a very cool little bar/restaurant opposite our hotel. we both enjoyed pan fried local fish (caught this morning) with prawns, a veggie ragout and bean salad - beautiful! especially with a glass of  Lawson's Dry Hills Marlborough Riesling (excellent match!!). We are loving Martinborough!

Cool Change is such a cool, groovy local - this is our view of it from our room at the Martinborough Hotel.

Sailing Lake Taupo and driving to Napier

We took advantage of the perfect conditions and booked a 5pm cruise around Lake Taupo yesterday afternoon on the good (sailing ship) Barbary.

There were 19 of us on board + the skipper. There was a good wind blowing on the lake so trying to keep "an even keel" (and not sliding off the side of the boat) did detract somewhat from feeling too relaxed most of the time.

One of the best parts of the trip was chatting to our neighbours Joel and Erin (yes Ros!!). They were a pair of smart, savvy New Yorkers - on their honeymoon in NZ, so we had some great talks over the 2 and half hour trip about the Donald and what was going on in the US that made people vote for him. Joel works for the ABC (American Broadcasting Company) so we was super cool, smart and switched on, as was Erin!

The weather could not have been more perfect!

The Maori rock carving on the north west side of Lake Taupo on the cliffs of Mine Bay gives these sailing trips a great highlight destination - as the bay is only accessible by water. They were created in the late 1970s and the main 10 metre high carving of the face is intended to protect the lake from any more volcanic activity underneath.

We had a slow start this  morning and it was well after 10.00am before we were on the road again. First of all we stopped at the Huka Falls (5 minutes out of Taupo) to see this part of the Waikato River, the longest river in NZ. It starts from the eastern slopes of my favourite Mt Ruapehu, flows through Lake Taupo and ends up eventually flowing into the Tasman Sea, south of Auckland.

The river only falls about 9 metres at this point but the volume of water over the falls often approaches 220,000 litres a second (enough to fill 4 Olympic sized swimming pools a minute).

The drive to Napier was another easy, less than 2 hour drive through undulating forests (and another magnificent waterfall along the way) and then lots of orchards and vineyards as we drove through the Esk Valley closer to Napier. 

We rewarded ourselves after arriving in Napier with a delicious lunch at The Gintrap at West Quay, Ahuriri, the site of Napier's old fishing port (now a boat harbour!).

I was very pleased with my choice: sea scallops, avocado and aioli and a strawberry, tomato, sumac and basil salad. I also tried a local Sauvignon Blanc (Elephant Hill) which went really well with these dishes.