The East Coast

At the time of writing we are in Dunedin on the South Island. We're driving around the southern part of the island while waiting for Giigan's parents to arrive in Christchurch in a couple of weeks or so. A lot has happened since we left Mt Maunganui (besides climbing Mt Taranaki which we already told you about) so we have lots and lots of stuff to write about. However, due to the trouble our laptop gave us in January, we haven't even had time to write about everything we experienced when we were still living in the Mount. So today's blog post will take us back to the first few days of this year and the road trip we did back then.

Our primary destination was the East Coast (of the North Island); the cities of Napier in Hawke's Bay and Gisborne in Poverty Bay, to be specific. We left from home on New Year's Day and spent four days in total touring this part of New Zealand.

We stayed two nights in Napier to begin with. On the way there we stopped in Rotorua, where Giigan went on the Rotorua Gondola and got some adrenaline kicks out of racing down the mountain side in what is called the Luge (a sealed downhill track on which you ride a three-wheeled cart with steering and brakes).

The gondola in Rotorua

Napier is one of the absolutely nicest towns we have visited in NZ. In 1931 an earthquake more or less leveled the city to the ground. At the same time huge areas that used to be seabed were lifted 2 metres above the sea level. This new land has, for instance, been used to build an airport. The city was rebuilt mainly in the Art Deco style, which gives it a classic look and feel. The architecture radiates adventure and creates a comfy atmosphere. The waterfront location of the town centre doesn't make it any worse either :-) It was also pleasant to notice that all the modern box-like buildings like giant supermarkets and department stores had been built outside the old town centre, and were thus effectively out of sight, but still easily reachable. Good street planning!

Art Deco in Napier

Hawke's Bay where Napier lies is the second largest wine producing region in the country and the principal region when it comes to red wine production. There are more than 30 wineries within a 30 minute drive from Napier. Most of them are open for cellar door sales and tastings. Some wineries even have restaurants or provide accommodation. If you have a car of your own it is an easy thing to tour some of the wineries. Simply collect the region's free winery guide from an i-site and drive to the cellar doors. Usually there is a nominal tasting fee, for which you may taste 4-8 different wines depending on which wines the winery have available for tasting for the moment. The downside of driving to the wineries yourself is, of course, that the driver needs to keep a rein on his consumption.

An alternative is to go on an organised wine tour. It's more expensive (but still not impossibly so) than driving around in your own car, but on the other hand no-one has to mind their drinking--I mean TASTING! Of course you're not drunk after touring four wineries, no, no, ehm...

JBB at the Ngatarawa winery, which used to be horse stables

Anyway, as this was the first wine producing region we had ever visited, we felt more comfortable with going on a real tour. The four hour afternoon tour took us to four wineries around Napier and included (besides the tastings) a cheese platter matched with a complimentary glass of wine. The wineries were Trinity Hill, Ngatarawa, Matariki and Moana Park. The wines of Ngatarawa were overall our favourites. Their Hawke's Bay Merlot and Merlot Cabernet would go excellently with game, whereas the Sauvignon Blanc made from Marlborough grapes lifts a cheese platter to entirely new heights. For those of you with a sweet tooth (like me) I recommend giving the Late Harvest Riesling a go. It's not overly sweet and has "a luscious palate of ripe mandarin with lingering flavours of dried apricots and honey" (at least that's what the tasting notes say).

The members of our wine tour enjoying the cheese platter and white wine at the Ngatarawa winery

The downside of going on an organised tour is that you can't choose the wineries yourself, but on the other hand, the guide is a professional and should thus be able to pick the good ones :-) The nice thing though, is that you may find interesting people on the same tour. Of the six other people on our tour two were, in fact, Finnish! We quickly befriended Jukka and Elina, who were in the same age as us. Elina is, like we are, on a working holiday in NZ, whereas Jukka was just visiting his friend. After the wine tour we challenged them to a game of mini golf with a round of beer in the pot (we were all kind of thirsty for something less wine-like after having sampled over 20 wines). Guess who won? ;-) It was fun talking Finnish in a group and to discuss the cultural differences we had encountered with someone sharing the same cultural background. Siinähän se ilta mukavasti pyörähti!

On our third day we left Napier in the morning and headed north along the curve of Hawke's Bay towards Gisborne.

On our way we strayed to the Te Urewera National Park. Besides vast stretches of rolling hills covered in untouched native forest, the national park is home to many lakes and rivers. Time allowing, we would have done some of the many walks in the area, but we had to settle for admiring the views.

Lake Waikaremoana in the Te Urewera National Park

Our flatmate Matt had recommended visiting the Mahia Peninsula south of Gisborne because of its beach. Despite the cloudy sky occasionally giving us a shower, we also strayed there. It turned out to be very fortunate, as there was a dolphin swimming with the people on the beach! We learned that the beach is its home, it's lonely and likes to swim with people. It's so tame, that it even lets you touch it. Giigan ventured into the cold-looking water and can now boast with having swum with a wild dolphin :-) He reported that its skin is very slimy and that its breathing sounds human.

Gisborne in Poverty Bay was a bit of a disappointment. Sure, the location is quite beautiful and there are endless miles of sandy beaches, but unless you're a surfer there isn't that much exciting to do. The city and the main street are a bit dull. There are, however, a lot of wineries around Gisborne too, but since we didn't have much time and we'd already done a wine tour recently we didn't go for it. Nevertheless, from a historical perspective, Gisborne is quite significant. It was in Poverty Bay that Captain James Cook stepped ashore in New Zealand as the first known European. The year was 1769. To commemorate this there is a statue of both Captain Cook and Young Nick, the boy who first sighted land on board the captain's ship, next to the beach in Gisborne.

Giigan striking a pose next to Captain Cook

All in all, it was once again a very successful road trip! The end of it also marked the end of our Christmas holidays. On Monday 5th January we both had to go back to work. As usual, you can access MORE PICTURES from this part of our journey by clicking this link.