New Zealand -Napier to Wellington

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After our Maori dinner we headed across the mountains to the east side of the north island to Hawkes Bay. The movie 'Whale Rider' was filmed here and the area produces a lot of fruits and vegetables and some very good wines (the rain seems to be following us, but today it was fine). We found our way to a little area outside of Napier along the winery trail. Mission Hill winery is still owned and run by the seminary owned by the Mariests. We tried some good wines and some fine dining. Mission Hill is one of the oldest vineyards in the Hawkes Bay area. We also tried one of their ice wines which they make by freezing the late harvest grapes- it tastes like cotton candy.

We explored Napier a town on Hawkes Bay with volcanic black sand beaches. This lovely town that was devastated by an earthquake in 1931 that measured 7.8 on the Richter scale which virtually destroyed the entire town. More than 150 people were killed by quake damage and ensuring fire. It gave the town a whole new beginning and they chose 'art deco' in the rebuild. The art deco buildings and palm trees are reminiscent of Miami or Los Angeles.

The popularity of art deco design can be seen all along the east coast of the north island from Napier through Masterson and Greytown. Much of the area is hilly sheep country with mountain on at least on side. At one point a sheep herd was crossing and the sheep dogs were characteristically jumping on the sheep's back to move them across the road. Sheep farms are everywhere in this hilly landscape. New Zealand had no mammals until the European settlers introduced them. Most of the introduced mammals were welcome visitors, but not the opossum that has multiplied and become a nuisance everywhere.

We reached Wellington late in the afternoon. Wellington is a charming port and gateway to the south island. The mountains surrounding make the setting of this busy capital city a captivating national capital surrounded by hills. The city comes alive with music and dance along Cuba Street in the heart of the city. The 70'a ban AC/DC were performing to crowds of 60,000. We ate at a little restaurant ion Cuba called Ernesto's that had a shrine devoted to Che Cavarra. The food was deliciious. We had an early morning sail to Picton on the south island

The ferry to Wellington is about 3 hours. The crossing was smooth, but the ferry was fully booked. We looked forward to our south island adventure.