Hawke’s Bay

I’m not much of a morning person, so it’s no surprise that I don’t often see a sunrise.  But somehow this morning the stars all aligned – an internal clock which woke me up at 7:15a, a late summer sunrise time, and an east facing hotel room overlooking the South Pacific.  Here was the view that greeted me first thing this morning:

Ahhhhh!  This was all the incentive I needed to crawl back in bed and enjoy the view out my window for a while.  :-)  Eventually I decided that the view would better be enjoyed with a walk along the beach.  There is a great paved path along the beach here, but once I got out there I found out the beach itself is not so “beachy”.  Mostly rocks and pebbles.  Way to rain on my feel-good parade, Napier.  Then, as if on cue, it actually started to rain.  Are you serious with this?  It hasn’t rained here in six months!  It can’t possibly rain on my wine country visit!

Oh, but yes it could, and it did.  It was rainy and cold all day.  F#@%&!!!!

At least the rain did one thing – it kept the tasting rooms pretty darn empty.  At Te Mata and Black Barn, I was the only person there.  Black Barn’s fig tree lined entrance:

Then I headed out to the coast to Clearview and Elephant Hill for lunch.  Almost all of these vineyards had crush going on while I was there.  Filling the barrels at Elephant Hill: 

Lunch view at Elephant Hill (somewhere beyond those soggy palm trees is the coast):

The two styles of netting here in NZ, to keep the birds away from the almost-ripe fruit.  I’ve never seen this in CA before – I wonder why.  Full canopy netting, which could cover several rows at a time:

And netting covering the fruit clusters only:

Hmmm – I’ll have to ask about this when I get a chance.

The Hawke’s Bay region is not just one of NZ’s top wine producing regions, it’s a big agricultural area.  There were more apple trees in this area than grapevines.  As I was driving around from winery to winery, the apple orchards were just laden with fruit, the weight of the apples bending the branches.  It was clearly picking time too – lots of crates at the end of the rows, ladders stacked against them, and tarps spread between the trees to catch the dropped and discarded fruit.

With four wineries under my belt and well over the 0.04 BAC limit, it was time to go find my B&B.  Tonight I'm staying at Ash Ridge, a working vineyard and winery, just down the street from a slew of other wineries including Trinity Hill.  The place is really nice, and I booked it thinking I’d have a private patio overlooking the vineyards where I could sit outside, relax, sip wine and read a book for a few hours. 

Instead, I’m cold and brewing myself a cup of coffee while I watch the rain fall outside.  It’s totally putting a damper on what I hoped would be a warm, leisurely and relaxing stay in wine country.  Grrr!  I guess all of the good weather karma we had in the South Island had to wear off sometime.  

With this being my last day in wine country, I have to admit that I’m not loving it as much as I’d hoped to.  I'm blaming it on the crappy weather.  But at least I am getting to do some tasting, and because of that I am learning more about NZ wines which is what I really wanted to do.  The true bright spot here has been the food. It has been absolutely spectacular, including my dinner at the Vidal Winery restaurant tonight.  Meals in this area have been pricey, yes, but by FAR the best meals of the trip.  Yum, yum.