Napier

One of the highlights of our first trip to NZ was the 2 days we spent in Napier. Its in the center of Hawkes Bay, an agricultural area on the east coast. The town was destroyed by an earthquake and resulting fires in 1931 and was rebuilt as an art deco down. This plus its oceanside location, an abundance of great local wines and cheeses makes it a great spot for us.
We first headed to Hastings another city in the Hawkes Bay area. After a quick lunch we decided to visit two of the local wineries. Our maps did not provide all that much detail and streets here can change names seemingly at will. We did finally get on the right track and arrived at Te Mata, the oldest winery in New Zealand. There are a number of wine areas in NZ. The two largest are Marlborough and Hawkes Bay. All of the wine we see in the US comes from Marlborough and its largely Sav Blanc. Hawkes Bay is considerably warmer and as a result doesn't feature Sav Blanc as heavily. Here we find Pinot Gris, Vigioner, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet Sav. Plenty of choices and very few that will disappoint. We sampled a few whites at Te Mata, bought a bottle of Sav Blanc and headed on down the road to Craggy Range. The location and building here are enough to warrant a visit even without the great wines. We sampled about 7 more wines here, but nothing jumped out at us so we paid the $5 tasting fee and headed to the award winning restaurant only to find it had just closed for the afternoon. No problem, we wanted to stop at the Te Mata Cheese store before making our way up to Napier. The cheese store offered an opportunity to sample 4 different cheeses. One of the fetas was terrific; we thought it would make a great match with our wine so we bot a hunk and drove on to the park. The drive up parallels the ocean for about 10km. It was a beautiful sunny day even if it was 32 degrees.
The holiday park is really unlike any place we've ever camped at. First it includes accomodations ranging from bare tent sites up to motel rooms. Melodee estimates there are 500 people staying here and at least half are under the age of 10. Lots of commotion, but not in a bad way. Second it sits in the middle of the city. There is a city park adjacent to it, but it is surrounded by a residential area. It is only a 4 block walk to a good shopping area – butchery, 2 bakeries, drug store, newstand, 3 restaurants and a few miscellaneous shops. We remembered that the butchery had marinated lamb medallions to die for so we stopped and picked up provisions for supper.
One of the nice thing about traveling in a camper van is the quick setup; there is none. You drive in, open the back door, get out the camp chairs and relax. As we were sitting down, the next door neighbor asked Melodee “Is that all you have to do?” He and his wife had been working for about 3 hours to get their tents, sun shade and other equipment set up. We talked a bit and found out they were from North Hutt, near Wellington, and this was their first foray into camping.
Easygoing evening, cooked and ate then drove down to the Marine Parade, their gorgeous ocean walkway. Another 10k or longer path running from the central city all the way down to Cape Kidnappers. We strolled, people watched and finished off with ice cream cones and conversation with the ice cream store owner.