Jaunted

The main town in the area is called Napier, and it’s an Art Deco fantasia. We’re no architectural experts, but even we were awed by all the pastel colors and rounded cornices. The city was destroyed by a devastating earthquake in 1931, and was rebuilt according to the fashion of the time, which just happened to be Art Deco. Only here it’s on steroids. No one accuses Kiwis of doing things halfway.

Hotel options don’t exactly abound. You could stay at the ultra-luxe Farm at Cape Kidnappers resort about 30 minutes south along the famous cliffs at Cape Kidnappers, but that will run you over $500 a night...in low season. You should try to make it up there for the views, however, and to see the famous colonies of gannets (kind of like large, loud seagulls) that nest there. Gannet Safaris Overland Tour lead three-hour tours up along the cliffs every day.

In Napier itself, we found a great apartment-hotel option called The Dome, which is right off the main boulevard (Marine Parade). Also near town, towards the nightlife district of Ahuriri—where you’ll find bars like Providore, Milk & Honey, and Caution—we also spent a night in another rentable apartment lodging called Esther’s Place, which also had sweeping views of the marina, as well as a private outdoor balcony and a dining room tailor-made for dinner parties, plus two full bedrooms and bathrooms, and a beautiful living room. It’s owned by Gabrielle Simmers, who makes a wine called "The Supernatural," and also owns a villa-style mini-resort outside the nearby town of Hastings called Millar Road, which actually has its own pool and apart-hotel accommodations.

Speaking of Hastings, Simmers took us there for dinner one night with friends who own and run a gourmet café in town called Taste Cornucopia. We ate at what we can only describe as a rural hipster haven called Pipi Café in Havelock, which was red and pink and cool all over. The wood-oven pizzas were to die for. After dinner, we hopped across the tiny main street to the tiny new Pipi Bar, where we helped ourselves to a soda from the antique fridge (painted pink, of course), and a splash of local Chardonnay.

So now that we’re talking about wine, it’s time to get to why we really came to Hawkes Bay, which was to visit the oldest, most premium wine region in the country, along with newer sub-appellations like Craggy Range and Gimblett Gravels, whose poor soils produce rich, concentrated wines with perfectly balanced acidity, making them at once robust but food-friendly.

After our gannet safari, we trundled back down the country road to the coast and stopped at the beautiful Elephant Hill Estate Winery to taste their wide range of wines and look at the bar and dinner menu in their gorgeous, modern restaurant (try to snag one of the fire pit booths if you can). We also drove past famous Te Mata, named for the landmark mountain in the area.

We spent an afternoon wine tasting with Odyssey Wine Tours. Our first stop was at the oldest commercial winery in the area, Mission Park Estate, which actually used to be a seminary, and is still owned by the Church. Then we made our way over to tiny Moana Park, the only winery in New Zealand to be certified 100% vegetarian. Then it was on to the former horse farm-turned-winery, Ngatarawa, before a final stop at little Salvare Estate for their distinctive Chardonnays.

The next day, we made two final stops in the Gimblett Gravels on our way south to Wellington. The first was at Trinity Hill, where we gabbed with the winemaker with the improbably American name of John Hancock (seriously, that’s his name, and you should see his signature), who became well known as the first person to oak Chardonnay in New Zealand. We tasted through several of his Sauvignon Blancs, Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet blends, and then the Syrah which he thinks is the next big thing for New Zealand.

Just across the 2 Motorway—a two-lane road at this point—is another name that helped put Gimblett Gravels on the map: Te Awa. There we caught up with young winemaker Cameron McInnes, who is working on, and gave us tastes of, the vineyard- and varietal-specific Kidnappers Cliffs line of wine the winery has rolled out over recent years. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance to stop at next-door C.J. Pask Winery, where the winemaker is actually one of Air New Zealand’s wine consultants, or at Craggy Range…so we’ll just have to head back to Hawkes Bay another time!

Full disclosure: Eric Rosen traveled to Hawkes Bay as a guest of Tourism New Zealand, but all opinions expressed are entirely his own.

{All photos: Eric Rosen]