Clive, Napier and Hawkes Bay

Ivan from Apex car rental picked us at the airport. Friendly driver who was also the manager. At Napier airport, Apex is relegated to a tiny building, no bigger than a garden shed, far at the end of all the rental cars. They’re a good rental company, nice cars, good prices, friendly service, and a good reputation. Ivan was a nice, chatty, guy, but a bit overconfident! Took a bit of convincing that I had to charge the car to a particular credit card or we wouldn’t be covered for damage. He didn’t know how the highway tolls would be handled either. He promised he’d pay them for us. Not likely. 😂 Anyhow, friendly guy. All good.

On to our 100 year old cottage. Used as lodging for the sheep shearers in days gone by. “Lightly renovated” was the description in the Airbnb listing. It was a sweet old cottage on a lovely property, think the owners had sheep and cattle, though we only saw a few cattle in a distant field. Shared a pool with the owners, who I only met briefly. Lovely spot, except it turned out to be on a quite a busy 2 lane road. Looked like it should be a quiet road, but it was a constant roar during the day. Quieted down at night, thank goodness.

Still, I enjoyed sitting at the picnic table in the garden for breakfast and evening drinks, surrounded by the scent of the flowers. I was surprised at how much scent was put out by the four-o-clocks, just lovely.

We made the crazy drive up to the top of Te Mata peak. Basically a one way road with cliff drop offs and supposedly 2 way. Thank goodness we didn’t have to back up at all. Doug did valiantly, but we were both scared. Lovely view from the top, but I could have lived without it, had we known! Thank goodness NZ has lots of great beer and wine, we needed some after that.

Took a drive to nearby Haumoana Beach. A steep, rocky beach, not for swimming. Though some little ones were having fun splashing at the waves edge. Walked as far as we could until we came upon houses with damaged decking and likely missing docks. This area was hammered by Cyclone Gabrielle just a year ago. Lots of road works in the area.

On Waitangi Day we visited the Waitangi Regional Park, which is a wildlife and wetland conservation area at the meeting of several rivers. There’s a lovely sculpture area representing a Māori navigational compass. Each post (pou in Te Reo Māori) had a different figure carved at the top. Beautiful carvings, some with glittering paua shell (abalone) eyes that felt like they were looking right through you! And a carved gate to welcome you to the area, as you would see on a Māori marae (meeting place.)

Info from the park website:

“The Ātea a Rangi Star Compass stands right on the edge of the coast. This dramatic circle of pou (posts), stones and a whaharoa (gateway) has been developed by the Ātea a Rangi Educational Trust and installed through 2017. Local carvers have created the pou, representing the points of the compass. They worked with the Regional Council's open spaces team to enhance this important historical part of the coast. Information signs at the star compass display information on the navigation skills and tools of ancient Māori who navigated the oceans to arrive here and settle.”

Before we left town, we drove to Napier to check out the yarn and vinyl shops, of course. And to see some of the Art Deco buildings dating from when the town was rebuilt after the devastating 1931 earthquake. I’d hoped to see the movie about the earthquake at the Art Deco center, but I was both too late and too early. Missed it. We found a comfy pillow to soften the uncomfortable driver’s car seat at a local op shop.

Onwards to Rotarua!Read more