Gisborne to Napier

We enjoyed a leisurely do-it-yourself breakfast at our B&B and enjoyed sharing travel stories with a couple from the UK. It ends up that their nephew is the sports announcer on Barrie TV and they had been to Niagara-on-the-Lake for his wedding.

We stopped at the Gisborne iSite to get some travel information for our trip to Napier, about 250 km.

There were a few things recommended along the way and we chose to stop at the Morere Hot Springs and Scenic Reserve, a NZ Department of Conservation facility. There were a few hiking trails and some hot spring baths so we thought that sounded good.

We selected a 2.5 hour trail which went through a semi-tropical rainforest. The first couple of km of the trail were all uphill including about 350 stairs. About a 900 ft climb.

The vegetation was so dense with nikau palms we did not have a good lookout at the summit. Now we were going down the same distance to the creek except it was almost a continuous stairway of another 350 steps down.

The trail followed the creek for a while and some more climbing/descending. About another 350 steps up and down. A beautiful stream and forest.

We ended up at the mineral baths where they had pools of hot, medium and a cold plunge pool. A great way to end the hike.

We were now running a bit behind schedule but we did manage to take a detour to Mahia Beach. We had a "holy crap" moment after coming over a rise and getting our first view of the sea and the distant landforms. Superb colour of the sea.

Again, hardly anyone there. We were now behind schedule and thought we could make up some time on the highway to Napier. Not!!!! Posted at 100 but the best the Tiida could do in a lot of turns was 65 before severe understeer set in and the navigator started to screech. We finally had a sighting of Hawkes Bay and made it to Napier about an hour after we told our B&B hosts we would be there. Unfortunately we couldn't call because there was no cell coverage.

Luckily, our NZ cell phone has a data plan and we were able to use Google Maps to find our B&B. Napier is like driving the hilly sections of San Francisco with streets that are one lane wide. Got there ok and parked the car on the sidewalk for the night. There was no way I was taking it out for supper, having a beer and trying to get home.

Guess what, it was downhill to the harbour, only 1.5 km away. Down a steep hill to the "shortcut" stairway with a straight down flight of 100 stairs to get us to the waterfront promenade in Ahuriri. 

We chose a nice outdoor patio at the Thirsty Whale, right across from the Napier Sailing Club. We had supper (and a wine/beer) while watching the sun set.

We had a nice walk back and fortunately there was a washroom before we had to ascend the 100 stairs and the hill to our place. 

A fun day.