01/02/2023 From Taupo to Napier

Not as we had imagined

Having breakfast at the car park, we had pulled in last night, turned out a little different. In my mind, we would have a spread on the picknick table, while using our camping cooker for coffee and tea for the first time.
In reality, it was raining and stormy. So we hurried cutting all the fruits up, couldn’t use our camping cooker because of the strong wind and ended up eating our breakfast bowls inside the van – don’t you just love New Zealand’s summer?!

Taupo

See the Aratiatia Rapids

On the way to Taupo we stopped at the Aratiatia Rapids, where we did little walk to a lookout point. We were lucky enough to find a small window of no rain (just a lot of wind). But if you come here, make sure you’ll get here when they release the dam at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 p.m. or 4 p.m..

Visit the Huka Honey Hive for honey and mead tasting

In order to escape the bad weather, we went inside the honey shop for some honey tasting. Instead, we ended up mead tasting – this escalated quickly at 10 a.m. in the morning. It was pretty tasty though!

Spontaneous road trip to the coast

Then we fled into a café to stay dry. The beauty of having a campervan is having the flexibility going anywhere. Since the weather forecast in Taupo wouldn’t look any better in the next few days, we spontaneously decided to drive two hours to the coast to Napier where it was going to be dry and sunny.

Hawke’s Bay

The drive to Napier was beautiful with so many green mountains and wide open fields. As soon as we got closer to Napier, mountains changed into vineyards, which the Hawkes’s Bay area is known for. When we got to Napier it was sunny and warm.

Dinner with a view

In the evening we got take-away food and parked right by the beach, where we were also going to stay the night. Leaving rainy Taupo behind and heading to the coast was definitely the best decision we could have made!

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02/02/2023 Hawke’s Bay
Waking up to the sound of the waves and to sunshine in the back of the van is as perfect as is can get for us!

Go for a run along the waterfront

I tell myself that it must have been the nice weather and the ocean that gave me a push to go for a run along the beach first thing in the morning. That is the good thing about the campervan life: your night outfit can also go as your sports outfit. So you’re already dressed for the jog 😉. Classy as usual!

The path along the waterfront was great and if I had the motivation (and energy), I could have jogged along the ocean for hours. Afterwards we used the public showers next to the visitor center – New Zealand really does take care of its backpackers and campers!

Hike up to Te Mata Peak

Then we started a hike. Most of the popular hikes in New Zealand are very well marked. That’s why we only needed to follow the yellow arrow that kept reappearing on our two-hour-loop. Just at the top we took a little detour to the peak from where we had a beautiful view over the different vineyards, the river and the ocean.

Somehow we managed to get “lost” after that. It looked like we were following the red arrow downhill now instead. I’d love to blame the road signs for it, but this one was clearly on us.

Visit a winery

On the way back to Napier, we stopped at one of the many wineries. In this family-run winery, called Askerne Estate Winery, we did a tasting for NZD$ 10 each. The tasting was really interesting and our British sommelier Andy had a lot of knowledge about wine and his stories were really interesting!

Since we bought a bottle of white wine for NZD$ 17 in the end, we only needed to pay for that while getting the tasting for free!

Visit a brewery

I guess since I’m more into wine whereas Blake prefers beer. So it was only fair to visit a brewery afterwards. This is why we drove to Hastings next to get a tasting flight of four different beers (for NZD$ 16). The brewery was packed and the beer was tasty!

Eat fish and chips

Good night

We spent the second night in our campervan at the beach in Napier again close to the car park from last night. In my mind falling asleep to the sound of the waves just makes for a deeper sleep naturally.

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03/02/2023 Hawke’s Bay
Today we were going to do one of the activities I was looking forward to the most on the North Island: We’d be going wine tasting!

Hawke’s Bay has been an abundant source of fine wine in New Zealand since 1851, and is the second largest region. Located on the East coast of the North Island, the climate is maritime and similar to Bordeaux, France.”

hawkesbaywine.co.nz

Rent a bicycle

The area Havelock North has a lot of different vineyards in close proximity. We rented two bicycles from “On yer bike” and started our little bike tour. Luckily, it was a sunny day when we rode through the beautiful green vineyards.

Do a self-guided wine tasting tour

After about 45 minutes we stopped at the first vineyard called “Paritua”. Just like on the previous day, we paid NZD $10 each for a wine tasting (of 6 wines). We really enjoyed it and by buying a rosé for NZD $17, we got one tasting for free.

Next, we cycled just a kilometre down the road to the next vineyard: “Sileni Estates”.

How did we end up with this much wine?

We really enjoyed the tasting (same price for five wines) and ended up buying a red wine. (The tasting was completely free then.) Even though we went for the most expensive bottle of the tasting, our tipsy minds told us we had still saved money 😉. Would we have bought both wines today as well as the wine from yesterday without the tastings? Probably not. But now we had a few tasty bottles of wine for the coming up sunsets on the road.

Back at the bike shop, we returned the bikes and wanted to fit in one more tasting in the winery next door. Somehow time had slipped away on us and it was already too late for the last tasting, which was – let’s be honest – probably for the better.

Back to our spot at the beach

We went back to the beach in Napier where we enjoyed take-away dinner at the beach (sushi again for me – I just love how you can buy it for little money at basically every corner).
From the van at the beach we caught a great sunset and listened to music before falling asleep happily after all this sunshine today. (But I’m sure the wine did its part too.)

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04/02/2023 Napier and Hawkes Bay

Breakfast with a view

It is Saturday, which means it’s time for Napier’s Urban Farmers’ Market. The sky was blue and it was sunny. So we could finally have our first breakfast at our camping table and our camping chairs right by the ocean next to our van.

Overnight oats and cheap instant coffee just taste better with an ocean view and good weather!

Visit the Napier Urban Farmers’ Market

The market was located right next to the Civil Square park. It was cute and had a lot of different baked goodies, crêpes, sandwiches, pies, juices, flowers and live music.

Go to the Bluff Hill Lookout

After strolling around town (which consisted of one main street) for a little bit more, we headed to the Bluff Hill Lookout, from where we could overlook Napier’s harbour and two huge cruise ships. (It made sense now, why the town was packed with tourists, other than it being a Saturday.)

The weather was amazing and we loved looking at the coast. It was then when we decided to stay a day longer in Napier. Coast and sunshine definitely beats no coast and rain.

Relax by the ocean

In the evening we drove back to our go-to car park by the beach, where we set up the table and the camping chairs and enjoyed the wine that we had bought the previous day. If only all days could end at the ocean with a bottle of wine…

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05/02/2023 From Napier to Taupo

Visit the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Market

Luckily, there was another market on in Hastings today. After a last very delicious breakfast bowl at the beach next to our campervan, we drove to Hastings.

Before the market is after the market

This market was much bigger than the one in Napier yesterday. And before I knew it, I had bought two different types of scones, some fig energy balls and a cup for my wine and coffee. (So I didn’t need to use the yellow plastic cup anymore – classy, I know). We also loved all the free tastings at this market. And trust me – we did them all!

Drive through the countryside

The 2.5-hour-drive to the next spot was breathtaking and we passed so many sheep, cows and what seemed like untouched land.

Waiouru

Visit the National Army Museum

Blake loves history. This is why we drove to the National Army Museum in a tiny town, that only consisted of the museum, a petrol station, Subway and a café.

Me-time

Shamefully, I have to admit that I’m not into museums as much. But Blake and I don’t need to share every single thing. So I was more than happy to go to a café to have some time on my own, while Blake enjoyed learning about New Zealand’s history inside the museum.

Taupo

After the stop at the museum we drove back to Taupo. We found a nice spot at the lake, that wasn’t made for camping. But we were hoping that we would get away with it for just one night here. And we did 😉.

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06/02/2023 Taupo

A new view to wake up to

Waking up to a lake view is almost as nice as waking up to the beach view in Napier only yesterday.

Go for a run along the lake side

Somehow I felt motivated this morning again. So I went for a short run along the lake, which felt great. Sneaking into a hostel to take a free shower afterwards felt almost as good 😉.
In the morning we sat in a cute café called “The Cozy Corner”, which had so many tasty-looking healthy snacks that I didn’t know what to try first. We also used this break to let the rain pass and to plan the end of our world trip in five months time. The German-planning-mode is definitely rubbing onto Blake 😉.

See the Huka Falls

Afterwards we walked for 45 minutes to see the Huka Falls, which was a nice path along the river.

Bath in the natural hot springs

…or not!

When we walked back we passed the natural hot springs next to the river. Blake and I had both sat in them many many years ago (separately) when they hadn’t even been commercialized. Apparently, they are not as hot these days anymore. Furthermore, they built a café and changing rooms next to them now. Additionally, seeing all the tourists sitting in them added to the fact that we didnt find it as appealing and unique anymore.

Go bungy jumping

Now – 18 years later (!) – I’m proud I did it. But I also know that I would never ever do it again. However, I did want to get back to this place to show Blake how cool I once was 😉.

Relax at the lake

And just like that, the sky cleared up and we could finally admire the lake without all grey clouds. It was stunning! We drove around one side and stopped at the south-eastern side of the lake. Even though the little camping sign with the tent was crossed off (=no camping allowed), we didn’t feel bad stopping here since we did not even have a tent 😉.

We put out our camping chairs, poured the last bits of the wine from the wine tasting into my new cup from the market in Hastings and enjoyed the view and dinner. (Rice, lentils and tuna for Blake and a savory scone with feta and spinach for me – yes, we are aware that you would pay a lot of money for this type of dinner in a restaurant 😋.)

One more thing on the bucket list

The view and the sunset were spectacular and we got a good glimpse of what the “real summer” in New Zealand would look like.

On our last full day on the North Island tomorrow we were finally going to check off a massive first-time experience for both of us.

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07/02/2023 Tongariro Alpine Crossing