Labour Day weekend - Day 2

We woke up to cloudy, bleak, windy weather. Peter thought it would still warm up (this area is the warmest, sunniest part of NZ after all!). So he wore shorts. Silly boy. We drove down to Hastings (only about 15min away) and had breakfast at a place called Bay Espresso cafe (they roast their own coffee). The food was great and the coffee was too! They even had a box of toys there, so the kids were kept entertained while we made a more detailed itinerary for the day and got to sit and relax a little bit. We bought some coffee beans to take home before we left and then went to the Hastings Farmer's Markets at the showgrounds. It was bigger than the Farmer's Markets we have been to in Hamilton and Cambridge, but still not as big as we thought it would have been based on the way it is advertised/people talk about it. There was a range of locally produced stuff we tasted including: cheese, sheep's milk, cakes, and meat products. I actually felt quite stuffed by the end, seen as we had just had breakfast! There wasn't as much fresh fruit and veg as we thought there might have been, although we did get some asparagus (it's in season so there is stacks of it being sold at all the markets) and some amazingly nice tasting apples (Pacific Rose variety). The weather hadn't got any better and it was very cold walking around (apparently the maximum temperature for the day was 11.8C. With pretty strong winds. We call that cold anyway.)We then drove on to Havelock North to start our tour of the wineries. We stopped at Prenzel (a distillery we had discovered in Marlborough when we did our South Island holiday in 2006) on the way to buy some schnapps and creme. We got off to a bit of a false start at the wineries as the first two we tried weren't open yet (most don't open until 10am on a Sunday, but these didn't open till 11am). So the first we actually go to taste at was Craggy Range Winery. It has a pretty impressive entrance and a nice lake out the front with ducks (we saw some cute fluffy ducklings), but it felt a bit snobbish. They charge a tasting fee which is refunded if you purchase something. They did have nice toilets (actually most of the wineries have nice toilets). Tasting was a bit tricky, trying to keep track of the kids especially as Ben really wanted to go back outside to see the ducks (even though it was freezing cold with the wind and I wanted to stay inside as much as possible).
We had a bit of time to kill before lunch so decided to take the drive up Te Mata Peak (that's it above, viewed from Craggy Range winery) to freeze our butts off. The view wasn't too bad even though it was overcast and the drive up and down was very interesting too (see the video - coming soon!).
It was on to Sileni Estate for more wine tasting and lunch. They had some nice wine and also had some wine on sale at a price we were happier with, so we got a few bottles there. We had lunch at the restaurant, our original idea (when we were planning before the weekend) was to be able to dine and sit outside in the sun looking out over the vineyard, but with the cold weather we had already decided on our way that we really wanted to sit indoors where it was warm. Unfortunately there were no spare tables indoors, so we had to sit in their alfresco dining area (courtyard style thing) which did have the plastic weather walls down and heaters on so it wasn't too bad. The food was great - we ate beetroot rissoto and a blue cheese, bacon, potato and sage pizza. The sun came out fleetingly after we had finished lunch so we were able to take some photos of the sculptures that they had out in their gardens.
After lunch we visited Trinity Hill vineyard, they had quite a few nice wines at a good price so we got a few and then made our way across the road to Te Awa for more wine tasting and purchasing. Ben found some other young boys to play with outside for a little bit, so that kept him entertained. We had had enough wine tasting by then and so headed for home with a quick stop at Silky Oak Chocolate factory to get some special afternoon tea.
The next stop and purchase was possibly the most exciting for us for the day. Napier has a Macpac store and we have been wanting to get a shade attachment and raincover (would be silly to try going bushwalking in NZ without one) for our 2nd kid-carrying backpack (that we got about 2 weeks after moving here). You can only purchase these from Macpac stores and there isn't one in Hamilton (or in Brisbane) and the mailorder warehouse never have any in stock, so we had been hanging out to get one. Well, the Napier store had 3 on the shelf, so it was a quick dash in and dash out on the way back to the backpackers for dinner.
And then bed - we were all pretty tired by then!

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!