Labour Day weekend - Day 1

As promised, a slightly more detailed summary of what we got up to over the weekend... along with some photos! The idea was to go somewhere a little further than we could get to on a normal weekend, so Hawke's Bay was the destination (google it if you want to know exactly where it is!).
To get the most out of the weekend we decided to make it an early start on Saturday morning and left home at 5am to start the 4hr drive to Hawke's Bay (which also meant the kids would be asleep for approx 1/2 the drive). Our first stop was Huka Falls (near Taupo) for breakfast. The falls weren't quite as impressive as I thought they would be, but were nice none the less. I had cooked apple and cinnamon pancakes on the Friday to have for breakfast, but it didn't quite fill us up so we made a stop at Macca's for a round of hashbrowns on the way out of town.

We then stopped at Waipunga Falls for a look and to give the kids a break from sitting in the car. Our overall summary of the drive was that everything looked green and it was nice scenery, but we also thought that some of it looks as nice as it does because it is different scenery for us, so in a couple of years time we might not think it anything special.

Our first winery stop was in the Esk Valley at Esk Valley Vineyard - apparently they are the only winery in NZ to grow Verdelho at the moment (we didn't think it tasted that nice - compared to the Aussie stuff we've had, so didn't get any). To use up the time before going to the backpackers for lunch/rest time we visited Mission Estate winery (very nice buildings - the old mission, as the name would imply!), and Church Road Estate (nice garden but it is right on top of a busy road, so we wouldn't choose to eat there, plus we weren't impressed with any of their wine we tasted). Both these wineries are located on the edge of Napier. We had booked a double room at Wally's Backpackers in Napier town (cheaper than getting a cabin at a caravan park). It was a nice backpackers - modern kitchen/dining, big lounge area, fairly quiet. After rest time we took a walk around town to look at/take photos of the famed Art Deco architecture.

We tried to find a fish and chip joint for dinner, but didn't find any along Marine Parade (the main drag along the coast), so we ended up driving around trying to find one. We eventually ended up finding one near the harbour - it wasn't all that good, and we had to huddle outside of it to stay out of the rain, which had been showering on and off all day.
After that, it was back to Wallys to get to bed. The kids went to sleep and slept uneventfully all night (even with a bit of noise from talking and car doors opening and closing at about 11pm).
And that was Day 1 - there are plenty of photos up on flickr now if you want to skip ahead to Days 2 and 3 before we've finished writing about them!