Hastings District

On the road again! We drove from Taupo to Napier and on the way, passed miles of invasive Scotch broom bushes on both sides of the highway, my most severe allergen. :-( Fortunately by the time we reached the waterfall there was much less of it. Another amazing natural wonder! Actually there were 2 waterfalls close to each other. Spectacular.
We drove onto Napier, but there was no surf today so we went wine tasting at one of the top wineries in NZ - Craggy Range Winery. Well made wines, but not to our taste. However it does have a world class restaurant that serves a vegan price fix menu along with their regular menu. We booked it, sort of a thanksgiving dinner for us.
We went to our cute little place and cleaned up before we went back for dinner. Our place is lovely with many varieties of flowers and trees outside. Nice. Yes Molly, there's a kids' room for any stowaways!
The fancy dinner was long and drawn out, food was beautifully prepared, presented, and tasty, but it took over 3 hours to have dinner! Confirmed our fears about these ritzy restaurants that we never go to, it takes too long! At least here the prices are significantly lower than in US, and there's no tipping! Still, we would only suggest places like this to foodies who enjoy this sort of experience. We ate too much for hours, and Kevin had the wine courses to match; by the time desert came around, he was sure that he couldn't eat his and mine. But guess what? He found room to give it a good try! He managed to stop himself after he finished half of both the deserts before he stopped to minimize any potential tummy issues. Dale, your story was called upon several times for encouragement -"have another helping, it only hurts for a little while". ha, ha.
Tomorrow we'll return to our usual food habits - except Kevin made dinner plans with an old wine biz friend who booked a fancy wine centered restaurant with nothing that I can eat! I think I'll stay home, happily!Read more