Hawke's Bay Wineries

This morning Jon and I (sadly) departed from Napier. We'd had such a lovely two days that the idea of leaving sounded pretty awful...but we have so much more of the country to explore! We set out for Hastings fairly late after a lazy morning and a lovely walk on the beach. We arrived in Hastings around 1 pm and headed to the information site to find out what they recommended for us to do in town. The two biggest thing included: climbing to the top of Te Mata Peak - the highest point over Hastings, andddd wineries!

We set out to climb to the top of the peak...and realized we didn't actually know where we were going... so instead we decided to head to our campsite for the night to check it out. Once we found where we were going...we were quite excited to learn it was across the road from 3 wineries! WIN!

The first winery was a little bit too far to work, so we decided to drive. At the Rod McDonald Winery we sampled 5 wines, enjoying several whites, which we normally stay away from - pretty delish! We also enjoyed the lovely view - SO scenic!

It reminded us a lot of being out east on Long Island - surrounded by the wineries, with the ocean not far behind. The only difference was also being surrounded on 3 sides by mountains. Seriously picturesque.

After the first one, we drove back to our campsite for the night, parked the car and wandered to the next one...Elephant Hill Winery. There, we spent a while talking to the woman who was helping us as we collectively sampled 12 wines! After we were finished sampling, Jon realized that he'd forgotten his wallet at the car! I stayed behind (as collateral...) and made friends with three guys who were touring New Zealand, working at different wineries. Quite interesting to talk to them about their travels around NZ wineries!

Our next stop (with me beginning to feel more than a little tipsy...) was the Beach House Winery, a small, family winery located right next to Elephant Hill. While there, we made friends with the host, John, and a friendly woman, Jeanine, and her husband and daughter, who we had seen 15 minutes before at Elephant Hill. We had a looooooong chat with them about...American politics, healthcare, wine...and LOTS of other things...during which time I got tipsier and tipsier. Oops. We purchased another bottle and headed back to Roxanne (the van). By the time we made it back to the van I was slightttllyyy out of it...and proceeded to pass out. Jon watched the Star Trek movie, during which, the WHOLE TIME I was passed out. Yikes. I woke up for about 20 minutes after the movie ended for about 10 minutes...wherein my wonderful husband had cooked dinner for me :) annndd then it was time for more sleep :).

Good day :-p. I am definitely NOT in college any more :-p.

Jess' highlight of the day: so much wine.
Jon's highlight of the day: going to the wineries and watching Jess get hammered.