photo blog cycle wine tours and Hawk's Bay

SV Jenny
Alan Franklin/Lynne Gane
Wed 18 May 2016 08:55
Dear Family and Friends,

18th May 2016

With some weeks to go before we return to the UK, we have been taking our travels more slowly, honestly! We are ready to just watch the waves roll and the countryside slide from autumn to winter, so we had hoped to meet family friends, Debo and Iain for an overnight stay whose generous hospitality turned into 3 nights and a house sitting for friends until the end of June, brilliant! This is perfect for us, much less moving, packing and repacking and the comfort of home for a while. Havelock North is a town with elegant shops, a foodies delight and a different coffee shop for a fortnights worth of mornings! It is close to walks, the coast, the vineyards and cafes and Napier. Better still it tends to be warmer than many places. Feet fallen on absolutely!


Photo 1 and 2, View from Te Mata peak across Hawk's Bay
Photo 3 Cape Kidnappers, so called because the Maori's kidnapped Captain Cook's interpreter, a native from Tahiti, James sent rescue war party. There are few accesses to the cape, a walk along the foreshore, 3 hours either side of low water or a sea trip, to see the Gannet colony. We were lucky enough to see such a colony on Alderney so we ducked this one.
Photo 4 Alan and the cow jacking. They definitely moved into our path and stared us down, but we bravely cycled on! This was my birthday cycle around the coast and here above the vineyards.
Photo 5 Autumn colours of the vines.
Photo 6 Me on my spendid cycle complete with flower motif paint job and tassels, love it!
Photo 7 Just another dip into Napier's Art Deco or more accurately a fusion of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, the wonderful frontage now just a furniture store. We took a short Art Deco tour of Napier with a wonderful octogenarian Shona, so interesting and I cant help thinking what a iconic era for design. I certainly dont feel the same for some of the modern buildings.

That's a cruise through the best of the last week.

All our best,

Lynne and Alan



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