At her insistence, we left our laundry with the owner, Jenni, who washed it for us while we were out for the day. First time we have ever had that kind of service!
There was a one day wine festival in one of the nearby winery areas and our intention was to go downtown, buy some ticket for the event and ride the hop-on-hop-off bus. Unfortunately, all of the tickets were sold out just before we arrived. A change in plans was quickly formulated and we did a self guided tour of the historic downtown. A major earthquake levelled the city in 1931. Most of the downtown was destroyed. Within two years, most of the downtown had been rebuilt, a large number in the Art Deco style of the day. Most buildings still survive today and the city hosts an annual Art Deco festival in February. Here are a number of examples....
Also downtown and extending the length of Hawkes Bay, is Marine Parade, the street that runs along the beach and has extensive public areas and parkland.
After walking the downtown for a few hours, we decided to strike out on our own and visit some of the area wineries. Our first stop was Mission Estate Winery, one of the oldest in the region. A beautiful estate with a large restaurant, banquet/wedding facility complete with chapel and a huge amphitheatre for concerts.
From there, we headed to the Bridge Pa wine area near Hastings. this is where the wine festival was being held and we were not sure if we could just stop by for a look and a tasting without a festival ticket. Our first stop was Ngatarawa. Once they found out we had travelled all the way from Canada, we were ushered into a private tasting room and had our own personal sommelier. Unfortunately, I was driving and could not do much more than taste and dump the samples but the wines were superb, especially the Pinot Noir.
We stopped at Salvare Estate but only sampled their olive oils and dips.
Next was Hawkes Ridge who were also generous at accommodating us even though we were not part of the festival. We bought a terrific Pinot Gris.
There was a large group of female cyclists all dressed in fluorescent coloured clothes that looked like they had been making the rounds of the wineries. We weren't really sure what this was all about???
The fellow at the iSite had recommended Black Barn Winery in Havelock North. We arrived and experienced a superb winery. Fromers have them rated as one of the 10 best in the world. A beautiful facility with a huge banquet/wedding area, vineyard restaurant, amphitheatre for concerts and a farm fresh store.
We ended up purchasing one of their pre-prepared gourmet meal entrées and taking it back to our apartment to have for supper. When we returned, there was our laundry, all washed and hanging to dry!
We enjoyed our supper and a glass or two of wine and worked on planning the remainder of our North Island tour.
No comments:
Post a Comment