Lovely Napier and Smelly Rotorua
Trip Start
Jan 14, 2008
1
14
22
Trip End
Mar 05, 2008
Napier,
New Zealand
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Monday morning, February 11th... Andrew got us some Starbucks coffee in town. We were dying for some filtered coffee as people in New Zealand just LOVE their espresso drinks. We had decided to rent bikes and tour around the area while visiting a few wineries. I called Bike D'Vine and the woman said she would call us back as she was busy. I really liked their program as it included some of the wineries we were interested in visiting. Alas, we never got a phone call, so I figured they didn't really want our business so we went with Bike About, who were at our hotel within minutes picking us up to take us to their location. It all happened so quickly that we had to get some breakfast at a local bakery before heading out on our bikes.
We were given some pretty sweet Hybrid bikes, Andrew's even had a nice florescent flag on it complete with baskets, water bottle holders which we would need and maps of the area. We spent the next 4 hours exploring the outskirts of Napier and Hawkes Bay and rode by farms, vineyards, sheep, orchards and we stopped to get out of the 85 degree heat at Park Estate, Church Road Winery and Mission Estate. All of the wineries had decent wine and Mission Estate had just gorgeous views overlooking Napier. It was an enjoyable bike ride and Andrew and I were very happy that we did it, but it was a little too much biking and not enough tasting. So after getting dropped off at our hotel we made a quick turnaround and headed out to the main Hawkes Bay wine region. Andrew's Aunt Cathy and Uncle Paul had met a man by the name of John Hancock (yes, just like the Declaration of Independence's John Hancock) at Boulevard one night and had talked to him about the winery where he is a wine maker called Trinity Hill. We arrived at Trinity Hill, a super modern, rather large winery that was packed!! We started to try their extensive collection when I saw John emerge from the back of the building. We told him about how Andrew's Aunt and Uncle had sent us here and how much they liked his wine and with that we spent the next hour and a half with John talking about his wine's as he poured us tastes from some of the wines they were tasting that day and even some that they were not. He seemed to enjoy sipping his wine just as much as he probably enjoyed making it. It really was a wonderful experience.
By the time we made our way home it was 5pm and we were pretty exhausted. We rested for a little bit in our room before heading out for a late dinner on the waterfront followed by a drink at the old school bar in our hotel. Tired, full and happy we went to bed.
We woke up on Tuesday morning with the knowledge that it was our last full day in New Zealand. We grabbed a quick breakfast at the Hotel and began our drive to Rotorua, one of the most touristed places in New Zealand, mostly due to it being a center for Maori culture and because all of the activities that you can find in New Zealand seems to be there. We drove through Taupo in a horrendous rain storm. Despite having the windshield wipers on full, we still could not see out the window. It was the second rain storm we experienced aside from our hiking on the Milford Track and I simply did not like New Zealand in the rain.
We arrived safely in Rotorua, which we had been told smelled pretty bad due to the high volcanic and geyser activity in the area. The place must have been sitting on a pit of sulfur as the smell of extremely rotten eggs engulfed our car as we approached our hotel which sat directly at ground zero next to Lake Rotorua. Hungry for lunch we departed from our hotel to walk a block to the Polynesian Spa, a spa that was rated a top 10 spa by Travel and Leisure for medicinal therapies. We had lunch at their cafe and after promising Andrew a 24 ounce steak and a good Malbec as soon as we got to Argentina, he agreed to join me in the hot mineral pools, we had 7 out of 26 to choose from with the Adult package and for an hour we relaxed in the hot Alkaline waters enjoying the views of Lake Rotorua on the edge of the pools.
Andrew agreed it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be, but still said that he was going to have his steak. We got ready for dinner and were met by our bus that was taking us to the Mitai dinner, a traditional Hangi dinner that included a Maori performance. We had been to a similar dinner in Hawaii and enjoyed it so we had high hopes. After a glass of wine, we were escorted down to a small stream where the Maori tribesman arrived by Waka or War Canoe and headed up to where the performance would be. For an hour we were entertained by the tribesman who explained their culture, about their tattoos, about how they interacted with European settlers and did what Andrew had been looking forward to all night... THE HAKA. Andrew had always loved watching the University of Hawaii football team do the Haka and he was so happy to see it in person. I have to say it was a little bit scary as some of the tribesman looked possessed, but it was pretty incredible.
We were taken into dinner, where we enjoyed succulent New Zealand Lamb & Chicken, Potatoes (Rewai), Sweet Potato (Kumara) and stuffing (a combination of Bread, Mixed Herbs, Corn, Carrots & Peas) and various salads, breads and finally a chocolate log. The food was much better than I had anticipated. After dinner, we had opted to pay $11 to go next door to Rainbow Springs to see the nocturnal Kiwi bird. We stopped along the way to see the glow worms and finally entered the Kiwi birds cage. We were shocked to see how big and shy the Kiwi was. Unable to fly, the Kiwi is about the size of a chicken with a super long beak and fur. Andrew and I were obsessed and we just loved the Kiwi and managed to stay in the cage not only with our group, but with the group after us. Unfortunately, the end of the experience was a little bit of a let down as the Mitai dinner folks seriously did not have their act together with regards to the buses to take us home. We waited for half an hour to leave Rainbow Springs which was a bit of a disappointment, but we had a wonderful experience nonetheless. Definitely a great way to spend our last night in New Zealand. Once we finally got home, we packed up for the last time in New Zealand for our short trip to Auckland where we would be catching a late afternoon flight to the fabulous city of Santiago, Chile!
