Mon Logis Napier

Traveling means being flexible – especially if your activity depends on the weather. We've been lucky so far but Monday was gray and then turned nasty. It was an interesting start – we had gotten tickets to Wai O Tapu where there is a geyser that erupts promptly at 10:15. We get into the car at 9:10 – plenty of time – and the Spaceship doesn't start. We've run out of gas ...

... up a storm in the kitchen armed with a bell which produced a Pavlovian response from Gavin when food was ready to be served (or when the kitchen were curious as to what he was up to). Gavin joined me in a glass of Riesling and we swapped tails of Thai and Malaysian food and tales of Vince. The food was all prepared from scratch including the sauces and spices which gave the food a real home-cooked feel and superb flavours. As ever ...

Yesterday we set off around 11am to hire bicycles and tour the Hawkes Bay wineries. Our first port of call happened to be a brewery and it was a must we try the 6 out of 12 beers and ciders. We opted for apple, pear and ginger cider, the latter being rather strange plus a couple of ales. The brewery cafe / tasting area was cute so we enjoyed our tasting in the sun ...

... On one side of us was the ocean (that was my side of the tractor). On the other were steep cliffs. So there was not much room to manouvor the tractor. The worst was when he got stuck and all but the baby and the baby's father had to get off the tractor, scramble to miss the waves, and hover near the cliffs to wait for the driver to pull the tractor through the tricky spot. I was so happy to be wearing Teva sandals for this trip! The ...

... to a statue of cpt cook that is in the wrong clothing and wrong naval markings. at the bottom of the cliff was a maori meeting house that jen and i were lucky enough to get a private tour of. the structure was amazing and the carvings were extraordionary. we headed toward town to wander around for a couple of hours and then we headed out on the road again toward home. seeing that the trip to Gisborne was "not great" in the morning light, we thought that ...

... we were back on the bus as the bus driver James had offered to take us to a winery. Mission Estate was the winery, not only was it an incredibly grand building but the gradens were beautiful. We were first taken through a wine tasting session where we sampled 7 different wines, from red to white, from dry to sweet, from their Estate wines up to their Reserve Wines. The place was fascinating and although we had hoped for a more thorough tour, we were limited on time. We spent the ...

... staying at a place right next to the beach, hearing the ocean waves crashing all night and breathing in the fresh air. The next morning we got up and ready and had breakfast at a cafe called UJazy that was recommended by the staff at our lodge. It was SO good... I had eggs benedict and Caitlin had pancakes that came with banana and bacon... both VERY good. We got a seat right in the open window facing the street and had fun people-watching. While we were sitting there ...

... what I've seen of it. We are leaving tomorrow morining for Wellington. Maybe I will stop here on my way back to To-Rags. I got a call that my contract job is a go. I start next Tuesday, because Monday is a holiday. I will probably need to be back in Tauranga for Friday though, to prep myself up. Then I get to spend some time in Gisborne on the company dollar! I am really pleased to hear this went through as I am in bad need of cash after my recent poor luck.

(Originally published at http://www.troysgonewalkabout.com)
< br>I thought I may have left the amazing twisting roads behind on the South Island, but not long after saying goodbye to my relatives and leaving Wellington’s suburbs the motorway narrowed to a two lane road snaking around steep green farmland. My ...