We’ve been blessed to have had many great trips thus far in New Zealand. We ran into a few challenges on our most recent adventure. Our first stop was supposed to be Gisborne on the eastern coast of the North Island. It is a substantial drive from Auckland of over 6 hours. Ninety minutes from Gisborne we reached a "Do Not Proceed" barrier covering half the road. You would think they would post some warning signs further back to let us know this was coming. Either we were blind or they weren't there. At this point, we had two options: (1) backtrack an hour and then take another 4-5 hour detour to Gisborne or (2) take a chance and continue down the road as it looked fine in front of us and other cars had gone around the barrier. Given it was already early evening and we didnt want to travel much longer, we opted to take a chance with #2. Epic fail, 45 min later the road was completely blocked by a landslide. Ended up staying in a tiny motel in a little town with two options for dinner, the gas station or a chinese/fish and chips takeaway. Always makes me nervous when a shop sells both chinese and fish and chips... usually neither choices are appetizing! We picked up granola bars from the gas station... so filling! New Zealand, we love you, but you need to get some better detour signage.
The next day we skipped Gisborne and headed to Napier. This area, known as Hawkes Bay, is also the second largest wine region in New Zealand after Malborough. There were plenty of places to taste and drink the local specialties. We visited: a chocolate shop, honey center, an awesome Indonesian restaurant, and several vineyards.
We also visited Te Mata, a mountain providing for amazing views of the countryside even on a mostly cloudy day. Napier has an abundance of Art Deco architecture. An earthquake leveled the city in 1931 and all the new buildings were built in the Art Deco style. Unfortunately we didn’t get great pictures of Napier due to some inclement weather.
Beautiful scenery and grapes. What lens are you using?
ReplyDeleteThanks Aunt V. The lens I use is a 24-105 mm. Have been pleased so far, it's pretty good for landscapes and most things. Have a old 70-300mm zoom lens that I occasionally use as well. A macro lens would be fun to get at some point. Do you have one of those?
ReplyDeleteI have a 50mm Macro but want the 105mm, it's next in my line of lenses. I just got the 17-24mm wide angle. I'm also starting to drool for the Nikon d800. I need to hit the lottery for that one!
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