Hawkes Bay

A quick escape from the capital city and we're on our way into more wine country that we couldn't resist visiting, it's also home to some maori activity, art deco buildings and beaches.

Art Deco Napier

In this region we managed to stay in some unusual backpackers, a prison and a convent. The prison has hardly changed from when it was in use with "real" criminals including women who practiced abortion! The beds still creak in the individual cells (we kept the key on the inside), toilets and showers are outside but luckily the weather was not too cold, and not forgetting the barbed wire around the outside. This is a far cry from the luxury converted prison where Simon stayed whilst on business in Stockholm.

Dom ex-Prisoner NAP

Napier has what are known as art deco buildings which were popular in the 1930's, it seems that as an architectural technique it could be quite pretty and certainly goes well with different colours.

Gisborne hardly seemed to catch our eye at all, perhaps it was the wine we tried in Hawkes bay. The New Zealanders are starting to make red wine but they take all the tannins out and even peel the grape skin so they don't really taste like wine at all, more like fruit juice or beaujolais nouveau.

In our search for Maori culture we passed many marae - these are the communities where the maori can live, eat and sleep in a manner similar to their ancestors, however the real meaning was apparently just the wooden carvings around the entry to these communities. Since people are living there we didn't get to see a lot although one lady in the maori trust showed us some pretty good carvings. Opotiki had a strange totem pole in the centre of town probably to indicate the place of the best pies around.

ex-Convent Gisborne

Hawkes Bay Vineyard

Marae Gisborne

Opotiki Centre