A few weekends ago Neil and I drove over Gentle Annie for a weekend in Hawkes Bay. I’ve no idea why the road between Taihape (about forty minutes from Ohakune) and Napier is so named as it’s anything but gentle, taking you up over one of New Zealand’s many hill ranges and down the other side to the wide bay. Maybe it’s because you need to treat it with care, a lovely, but meandering (and slow if you get stuck behind a logging truck) two-hour-plus journey with expansive views over farmland, native forest and pine plantations. I’ve asked around but no one seems to know.
We have a difficult relationship with Hawkes Bay. Known for its warm climate and as a place to go to find summer, we’ve never managed to. Most of the time we make the trip, either from Ohakune or Wellington, the weather fails to live up to anything we are told to expect. We’ve had winds so chilly we’ve been forced to abandon any idea of picnicking or eating fish and chips by the sea, unless we want to shiver through the meal. A couple of times we’ve almost drowned when trying to walk a short distance between car and restaurant or accommodation. Once we enjoyed a lovely meal in a vineyard with free entertainment, watching children ignoring the heavy rain turning a garden into a lake, splashing through said lake as their caregivers tried to get them inside without getting soaked themselves. One woman, a grandmother I guessed from the age gap, scored massive brownie points with her charges by ignoring the damage it was doing to her shoes and joining in the jump.
In September last year, when my knee injury forced cancellation of our guided trip to the Kimberleys, we stayed in Napier for a weekend instead, indulging our tastebuds. Nowhere in this country is warm in September but we were graced with sun that took the edge off daytime temperatures at least and had a lovely weekend. The car was heavier going back over the hill both from the wine we’d bought and the food we’d eaten. We thought our luck had changed.
We were wrong. Still suffering from missing our holiday last year and, due to moving out of Wellington, not having had chance to do anything much over the Christmas break, we thought we’d treat ourselves to a weekend in the bay, even staying in a proper hotel rather than airbnb. We paused at the edge of town for a vineyard lunch, enjoying the warmth as we sat outside and sampled the wares. By evening the refreshing breeze had turned into a cold southerly that made the temperature go down faster than a glass of Hawkes Bay’s finest.
The next day we headed off on a bike ride to a recommended café for breakfast. On arrival a surly server told us it was counter food only, no reason or apology given. It was disappointing but we wouldn’t let it spoil our day (as a bonus we made it back to town just in time to catch a decent coffee at Uncle as it was closing for the day). The sky was the pale grey that suggests the sun might put in an appearance, although misty rain drifted into us a few times. The cloud lent an ethereal aura to the wetlands we were cycling through, various waterfowl gliding across shallow pools, sculptures dotting the sides of the trail. Two large timber towers stood sentinel – now disused, they were once beacons essential to anyone trying to enter the harbour, lights atop them indicating the safe route to take when they lined up one behind the other. Despite the inclement weather it was a lovely day, topped off by an excellent meal at the always reliable Mission Restaurant.
On Sunday the weather reverted to type and the rain set in. We drove to the farmers’ market – an essential part of any trip to Hawkes Bay for us – and wandered around in the drizzle. I couldn’t live in this area (too flat and not enough hiking opportunities) but if I had to this market would make it worthwhile and is evidence of why Hawkes Bay is often referred to as the bread-basket of New Zealand. Stalls of in-season fruit and veg, local olive oil, baked goods, meats both fresh and cured, ring an old oak tree and, in fine weather, people wander around munching sandwiches and sipping coffee. Today it was more of a scurry as we all filled our bags and dashed back to cars, the drizzle getting heavier and clearly with ambition to turn into proper rain.
As we drove back to the hotel it achieved its goal, lashing against the windscreen and dissuading us from attempting any form of outdoor activity. The hotel wifi was so bad we couldn’t even do Wordle so we called it and came home a day early, driving the long way via Taupo to avoid a lengthy hold up in roadworks. As the road twisted through deep gorges and climbed up to the plateau the rain slowed and, with Lake Taupo appearing in the distance, the sun broke through. Back in Ohakune only small puffs of white dotted the blue sky. The next day was lovely. We checked the weather in Hawkes Bay: it was still raining.
Tracy Annenberg 