Napier

Yesterday we travelled from Taupo to Napier. It was a long drive and took a good few hours along some very long and winding country roads. It was however a lovely sunny day and the drive took us through lush green forests.

The following morning we woke up to the sun shining so not wanting to miss out on a beautiful day we decided to hire some bikes. We visited Napier City Bike Hire and picked up Dorothy and Darwin, 2 lovely black mountain bikes. Napier is located within Hawkes Bay, which boasts around 200km of off road cycle trails and the majority of it is flat. We opted for the coastal route which took us from Napier to Clive and through Haumoana and Te Awanga and finishing up in Clifton. It was a lovely ride along the coast with some incredible views. We also cycled through farmland and got to see some baby lambies and calfs and alongside some wineries. It would be amazing to come back in the summer and visit all of the wineries. Before we headed back (and after a slight altercation with a giant rock which came out of nowhere) we stopped for a picnic on the beach which was lush.

The ride was around 50km in total so we were absolutely pooped come the end. To reward ourselves for our hard work we headed to the fish and chip shop for some dinner. Unfortunately it was shut so we returned to the van with a very disgruntled Simon Thatcher for some tuna pasta instead.Read more