Hawke’s Bay 2006 – Browsing the archives…

While driving several hours towards Auckland we again started to talk about Napier and suddenly became aware of our very special relationship we maintain with that region. As a matter of fact, it’s our fifth trip to New Zealand and our fifth visit to Hawkes Bay. We started to ponder: Really? Shall Napier truly be the single one place we visited on all our journeys through New Zealand? Except for Auckland of course, the natural start- and end destination of all our New Zealand trips. We had to think again, recalculated, thought harder and definitely concluded that at the end of this voyage we will have been the fourth time in Queenstown/Arrowtown, the fourth time in Moeraki and Fleur’s Place, furthermore we recalled three visits to New Plymouth / Mount Taranaki, and we also had been three times to Kaikoura and Blenheim. But, as hard as we pondered and calculated, there is really only one place we visited during all our travels. And that is Napier.

But why? Why again and again Napier? To better understand we need to travel back in time to 2006. It was Christmas and we were once again looking for an accommodation. Rather accidentally we passed by the Crown Hotel. At this point in time a brand-new apartment block in the Ahuriri neighborhood, the former docklands of Napier. There hasn’t been any hotel sign and the official opening party has not taken place either. Virtually we were one of the very first hotel guests and got an excellent one-bedroom-apartment at a price of a very cheap motel – a new opening offer so to say. As usual we booked for two days. And extended. Several times. At the end, we stayed a full week. Back then, that was indeed a complete new experience. Nowhere in New Zealand we ever stayed longer than two days in a row. We always had to move on. There was so much to see, so much to explore. But at the Crown, we stayed the first time six days.

And we went on a first “New Zealand-Wine-and-Dine” expedition: Te Awa Winery, Sileni, Craggy Range, Black Barn.
We also plunged into the New Zealand Cafe scenery: Thorpes, Bella Rosa, Provedore. No compulsory tourist-tour, no Art Deco, no Cape Kidnappers trip. Instead we discovered the Ocean Beach – not mentioned in any of the numerous tourist guides – and lazed away a full Sunday afternoon at the entirely unknown Matiati-Beach; observed absolutely fascinated the armada of tractors launching fleets of little motor-boats. In no-man’s-land between Napier and Gisborne.

When we left, six days later, we ultimately found our own New Zealand travel style: slowed down, relish oriented globetrotting. On that drive from Napier to New Plymouth in 2006 I picked up our travel guide for the very last time. Almost 700 pages. And I simply wanted to know, whether they mentioned the Ocean Beach. But they didn’t. Nor any of those gorgeous vineyard restaurants or cafes.

Ever since we travel without travel guide…

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