“The sombre grey of a day of clouds”

If you’re from New Zealand, you may want to look away now.

I’m sure it’s nothing serious, but right now New Zealand is not grabbing me. I do appreciate that we’ve only just got here and it’s probably the frustration and tiredness talking.

But hey, where’s all the colour gone? We spent the day in a muted world. This was a bit of a shock as was the temperature. Jeans are here to stay I fear, and a fleecy top came out as well.

The day started early and combined with a late night (the laundry took hours to do), we were both feeling a bit grumpy – especially me. We weighed our bags to make sure that they’d pass Air New Zealand’s strict luggage policy following yesterday’s bag turnover.

We took a shuttle to the domestic airport, checked in and had great bagels (the ingredients were the freshest) and superb coffee.

The flight to Napier was uneventful and our private shuttle was there to meet us – they had kindly agreed to switch the booking we had for the previous night. We arrived at the cottage, put our bags down and got ready to go.

I guess the stress had been building up and it exploded with a massive headache about twenty minutes before our pick up arrived for our Hawke’s Bay Wine Tasting tour. Again, I must mention that the company were very accommodating and switched us to a half day, with a refund for the difference from the full tour we’d booked. I think this is what’s been eating me up – it didn’t have to be this way. When we agreed to swap to an early flight out of Tahiti, we failed to revise our itinerary. Had we done this, we would have asked Air New Zealand to put us back on our original flight to Napier last night and we would have had our two nights in the cottage and the full wine tasting tour today. Argh!

We drove through Hawke’s Bay and fields of pumpkins, chillies, kiwis, onions, corn and apple and pear trees, and a sign for a coffin making club.

We visited three wineries, and they were very different.

We started off with Vidal Estate, an international winery where we tasted nine wines (four whites and five red) and yet we were in and out in no time. The Riesling and the Syrah (2011) got our votes but the winery didn’t do much for us. We felt rushed and part of a conveyor belt.

Our second winery was Alpha Domus. Quite trendy, and friendly. We tasted six wines, and the Chardonnay and Noble Selection both got ticks.

And then we went to Moana Park. An unfortunate health issue a few years back led the owner to develop a range of pretty unique wines, he developed an allergy to wines (!) and consequently, the wines are now natural – and vegetarian – with no preservatives or sulphur. We tried seven wines, and our winners were the Chardonnay, the Pinot Gris and the Pinot Noir. We liked the Pinot Noir so much that a case may well be on its way home 🙂

We asked to be dropped off in town. Napier’s claim to fame is that the whole town was rebuilt in 1930s Art Deco architecture following the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake. It sits on the eastern coast of the North Island.

We walked the streets for an hour or so. It felt like walking in a film set.

And then we were lucky enough to (briefly) see a team rehearsing for the Te Matatini National Kapa Haka Festival 2017 which is currently taking place in Hastings, just down the road from here.

We popped to the supermarket to get dinner and then walked up the hill, which looks worse than it is thankfully.

The cottage is lovely, and incredibly historical. The Historic Colenso Cottage is named after William Colenso, a Cornish Christian missionary to New Zealand, and also a printer, botanist, explorer and politician. It’s a pretty building on top of the hill, and it’s beautifully decorated. It’s comfy and homely. Mr Colenso came up with today’s title by the way.

So this is it. We’re back on track with our itinerary. It’s just a shame that all the disruption affected the things we were most looking forward to – our stay in Devonport, spending two nights in this cottage and today’s full wine tour. Andy’s urging me to let go.

We have a tasty dinner at home this evening. Sitting down with a glass of wine and fresh ingredients from New Zealand.

Things are already looking up.