A Tasting we will go!

Got up to another overcast day today but we don’t let that stop us! We drove up to a lookout point called Bluff Hill with a great view over the other side of Napier - a town called Ahuriri - the log dry land sort and container port. There was a small cruise ship approaching shore while we were there. We then drove down to Perfume Point where there is a cool little lighthouse, then walked into the town of Ahuriri to have a quick look around. From there, we headed south to a town called Hastings - another place that suffered lots of damage from the 1931 earthquake and has been rebuilt. We walked around the town - saw Santa on his “sleigh” driving around, the Christmas decorations and some cool little stores on the Main Street - they actually still have K-Mart here, but forgot to get a pic! We grabbed some lunch then set off to find some of the famous Hawke’s Bay wineries!

The first winery we stopped at was called Pask, and the lovely manager, Mel, was very informative and gave us some very nice wines to sample. We started talking to her about the Kelowna wineries we’ve visited, and it turned out she knew a friend of Jeff’s from Beaumont winery, who has been here and travels all over trying new wines and visiting wineries! Small world! I picked up a bottle of Chardonnay at Pask - looking forward to trying that! Our next stop was Te Awa winery which is on the Gimblett Gravels - this is an area where an earthquake diverted the river leaving behind gravel type soil, which creates perfect drainage for growing grapes. We each got to taste 6 different varieties of wine here (hic) - good thing they’re small samples! We crossed over half a block down the road to Trinity Hill Winery, also part of the Gimblett Gravels, and I have to say, some of the best wine we have tasted in the area! In all 3 places, I tried the whites and Dave the reds, and we both agreed at Trinity Hill, all of the samples we had were amazing! Dave bought a bottle of their Syrah, which he really enjoyed in the tasting. As I said, it’s a good thing the samples are small, as we had a 40 minute drive back to Napier after all these shenanigans!!

We decided to go back over to Ahuriri for dinner to a place we’d found in a brochure called The Jandal, which looked to have some pretty good menu items. As you can see from the photo below, it’s a good thing we got there early..... ha ha!! When we first walked in, there wasn’t even a greeter, server or bartender, and we had to cough a few times before anyone realized we were there! Nevertheless, we had a pretty good dinner, and by the time we left, one other couple had arrived to eat - must be the weather, or maybe cos it’s only Tuesday here 🤷‍♀️. Back to our hotel now for a rest and to plan tomorrow’s adventures!Read more