Hawkes Bay, Pt. 1

This past weekend, we finally were able to get out of Wellington. We decided to drive up to the Hawkes Bay region, which is about a 4 hour drive north on the east (Pacific) coast of the North Island. In addition, it is one of the primary wine regions of New Zealand, which of course is a big selling point for us.

I bolted from work around noon Friday so we could get up there early. It was a pleasant drive with beautiful weather and a nice backdrop of green hills and distant mountains. We happened to see a road sign that we’re certain you’ll not find anywhere else on earth.

We were staying in a little two bedroom cottage/B&B type place that was very pleasant. The landscaping was particularly nice and Quinn liked running across the little bridge and chasing the ducks.

Besides wineries, one place I had read about was Te Mata Peak, which is a 399 meter high crag (that’s about 1300 feet for you Yanks) that looks out over the whole region. There are some fantastic walking and biking trails there, but you can also drive right up to the top. We went first thing Saturday morning and had a beautiful view. The first pic shows the location as a rocky hill at the right.

While the landscape was beautiful, one thing that seemed odd was the presence of these wooden ramps at the top. At first we had no idea what purpose they serve or who would have put them there. I then remembered that because of the great updrafts created by the peak, this is a popular place to do hang gliding and other sports requiring crazy people to jump off cliffs.

As always, there were sheep. And we took pictures of them. I’m always amazed at how comfortable they are standing at the edge of an abyss. They’re spooked and run away if you roll down your car window, but if there’s a bit of nice greenery hanging off a thousand foot cliff, well that’s just worth the risk, I guess.

We met some nice people that had grown up in the region and had returned to check it out. They were kind enough to take a family photo for us.

It was a fantastic morning and there was suprisingly little wind, so we decided to go for a short walk along one of the trails. We put Quinn in the backpack and off we went. Quinn likes being in the backpack, though as he now weighs 30 lbs, Daddy always gets a good workout.

One of the replanted forests looked like a blanket on a far off hill.

As is often the case in these coastal structures, it was formed by seismic activity that pushed the ancient seafloor to these heights. It’s very strange walking along the tallest peak in the region and all around you are seashells and other “beachy” things.

More soon about our trip to the wineries and the city of Napier…