Wine tasting in Hawke’s Bay

Well I drew back the curtain to see the sun rising over the ocean – what a great sight.

That wonderful view across the city and down to the sea was still there but this time Napier was bathed in bright sunlight and what a difference it makes!

After breakfast we head out to a high spot. Te Mata Peak is at the western boundary of the wine-producing Heretaunga Plains and stands nearly 400 metres above sea level. The steep road up was scarey enough rounding tight hairpin bends with shear drops but the panoramic views were awesome up there and you felt you were on top of the world.

‘By croiky’ some crazy people were jumping off the top and appeared to be just hanging there on the thermals before slowly paragliding down to the tiniest of dots in a field at the bottom of the valley.

There were some unusual blue flowers (well unusual to me) growing on the banks at the roadside on the way up to the peak called Echium. They looked like giant grape hyacinths!

The Toitois are really getting quite fluffy now and look lovely everywhere.

On the way back to Napier we passed through Hastings and Havelock North. Here we stopped to look around Aqua Fever, a tropical fish shop that Dan remembered from a previous visit. There were plenty of pretty tropical fish here as well as the more vibrant coloured marine fish. Dan is a very keen fisherman as well as keeper of tropical fish.

We also wandered around a Farmer’s Market, being in the heart of fruit-growing country, as well as wine and fruits from the sea! Here we bought some lovely big apples and some Almond cakes to keep us going until our wine-tasting tour in the afternoon. Also ice creams – Feijeo, lime and chocolate… yum.

Returning through town, I took a few pics of some of the Art Deco style buildings although the weather had become somewhat overcast by this time. Will take some more tomorrow.

Just before 1pm the minibus picked us up for our afternoon of wine tasting. We visited four or five vineyards… couldn’t quite remember in the end but I was determined to find a New Zealand Red that I would enjoy as much as Aussie Red and I tried quite a few…. well we needed to make comparisons….

Actually I failed to find a Red that was as smooth and full-bodied as Australian Reds but then the New Zealand wine growers admitted this themselves. You have to just accept that it is different because of the cooler climate.

I also wanted my love of Chardonnay to be restored as I had been put off by one or two overly oaky ones in the Uk. No problem here, New Zealand are expert Chardonnay growers and after tasting six or seven…. or so, Church Road became a favourite.