Napier, Hawke's Bay: Back in time, Up a hill, Forward to the next winery!

This weekend we travelled back in time. Sort of. Napier, Hawke's Bay is world famous for its Art Deco, the architecture of choice for those who oversaw its extensive rebuild following a devastating earthquake in 1931. The city centre is now frozen in time and acts as a honeypot for enthusiasts of the interwar period and curious tourists. Having a Mediterranean climate, extensive beaches and numerous wineries also doesn't hurt.

We arrived on Friday evening armed to the teeth with recommendations from NZ friends of places to visit. Top of the culinary list was 'Mister D', a fire-side seafood-centric experience culminating in its signature dessert - donuts presented with a range of alcoholic fillings held in do-it-yourself syringes.

We cleared our heads the next morning with a run up and down Te Mata peak, which rewarded our exertions with some great views of the surrounding area. We cooled off in the sea at the imaginatively-named Ocean Beach, and then headed to the Black Barn vineyard to refuel. In case you've never been wine tasting in Hawkes Bay, the general idea (or at least the way we did it) is that you pop to the 'Cellar Door' to taste a selection of the vineyard's offerings (free of charge), before choosing a glass/bottle and considering your next move over a plateful of food from their well-equipped kitchen.

Next on the ad hoc agenda was a visit to Arataki Honey Farm. With limitless honey samples and a bee-filled hive display, this was a nice post-lunch pit stop before we headed to Havelock North, well-known for its shops' interesting paraphernalia. Dora bought a snazzy wooden garlic crusher and some chutney whilst I looked on benignly.

Clearview vineyard was our next stop, successfully selling us a dessert wine that we felt would make an excellent blue cheese accompaniment. 

Sunset was spent walking towards a modestly famous gannet colony, and although we didn't have time to definitively identify the birdy specs in the distance we felt satisfied we'd got the gist of the place.

That evening we continued down our great recommendation list to Restaurant Indonesia, which unsurprisingly serves authentic Indonesian cuisine. Its service is based on an ancient ceremony in which tens of dishes were brought out to guests, who then paid according to the amount of food they were able to consume. Unfortunately this clashed with our habit of not leaving leftovers, the outcome being some very full stomachs.

Me standing in front of cliffs,
no gannets in sight 

The Criterion, paradigmatic
Spanish Mission Art Deco, and also our hotel

On Sunday we decided to enhance our fairly rudimentary knowledge of Art Deco, so we joined a walking tour. This was led by Ron, an affable Yorkshireman with a solid knowledge of architecture, and a slightly shakier awareness of the gender equality movement. Ron turned every shopfront into an engaging history lesson and was also happy to share his thoughts on some of the local politics. One thing that struck us on the tour was how quickly Napier had recovered following the earthquake, with most of it's CBD fully rebuilt less than two years after three minutes of shaking and a two-day fire gutted its centre.

Walking tour over, we grabbed some bikes and cycled up the coast to Crab Farm winery, formerly a target of giant crabs that were known to carry off small sheep as recently as 1999! Once we'd procured a bottle of red for our burgeoning wine cellar (which will be difficult to install in our fifth floor apartment) we headed back to the car via a hipster pizza place to drive back to Wellington. During the journey the clinking of wine bottles, chutney jars and honey pots provided a pleasant reminder of a fantastic weekend in a beautiful place (my favorite city apart from Wellington, I think), and pointed towards some tasty consumption in the weeks ahead.

Next week: Our views on the European referendum, a lengthy political discussion that will cover all sides of the argument. Only joking! We’ll probably talk about how windy it is.