New Zealand #15 - We learn about Freedom Camping and visit another Winery - North Island

Spoiler Alert: On South Island we visited many absolutely fantastic places, like Fox Glacier and the Pancake Rocks, but North Island is not like that, except for a few spots (though I must admit we didn’t see everything so there may be some undiscovered places we didn't get to). So some posts from here on might not be quite as exciting as you've seen thus far, but stick with me because we will visit places new to you, and if you like New Zealand, or plan to visit, you'll still get some great info.

View from Mission Estate Winery

We are heading back out on the road but before we do have brunch near the University of Wellington with a friend’s son who is a Lecturer (Professor in North American terms). From our Island Bay cottage we go further west along the Coastal Drive, thus avoiding Wellington Center, but a pleasant 15 minute trip ends with parking chaos. We finally end up parking on a hill at a dodgy corner – thankfully on return, after walking up the very steep hill, there are no side scratches or dents and no ticket. The area around the University is very trendy and nice, and we have an excellent brunch at Aro Café, fried halloumi with a health salad for me while brightonbonnie has buttermilk hotcakes with mascarpone and strawberries.

Whanganui, at the mouth of the longest navigable river in New Zealand, the (you guessed correctly) Whanganui.

Afterwards the drive out of Wellington is a bit hectic but there is a nice stretch along Highway 1 by the sea. After an hour the traffic eases but the countryside is surprisingly flat (who knew they had flat land?) and boring. The last hour to our destination Whanganui is much better. The town is very picturesque, as is the caravan park, about 6 kilometers north along the river, and the owner upgrades us because he noticed we were from Canada!

Mission Estate Winery

But using the park at Whanganui has actually taken us away from our route, and in the morning we backtrack east an hour on Highway 3 before heading north-east. The Manawatu River gorge is spectacular (unfortunately no photos), but otherwise the drive is fairly mundane. We stop for coffee at The Black Stump in Dannevirke, probably the nicest flat white we can remember, and when we get back on the road run into (surprise) some rain.

At Hastings we have our first and hopefully only bad caravan park experience. The park itself is OK but badly positioned in a suburb so nothing to do nearby, but the room is not up to standard. Since this is a tourist area the room we wanted had a 3 night minimum so we had to take a lesser room, and it didn’t meet our needs. So not a pleasant night and we were glad to move on.

The detour to Whanganui and the issue booking this park highlight the one disadvantage of using caravan parks and relying on a chain – there are only so many locations, and tying your itinerary to them can sometimes mean you have to compromise. We are starting to think, if we return to New Zealand, that we need to have more flexibility.

Winery interior, some original furnishings.

We are in Hastings to visit the Hawkes Bay wine region – the third of our 90 day roadtrip, the first two being The Barossa in Oz and Marlborough in South Island. We start off on with some errands, and while fueling up run into a Kiwi that doesn’t understand Roadtrip Rules. Rule #4 – I fill the petrol tank, then check maps and GPS, while brightonbonnie tidies up the interior and cleans the windshield. Thus I am already seated, head down in map, brightonbonnie scrubbing bugs off the windshield, when a Kiwi, probably flirting, walks by and says ‘He’s given you the hardest job, lazy bugger should get out and do it himself’! We have said previously that Kiwis are often direct, but this was too funny as well, which is also typical! We still use the phrase 'lazy bugger' if one of us thinks the other is too slow doing household chores...

Wine cellar, dug out years ago by monks. A religious order still owns the winery but contracts out its operation.

We drive along the shore of Hawkes Bay into Napier, with a lovely seafront that bears another visit. A few kilometers on we arrive at Mission Estate Winery, the first winery founded in New Zealand, in 1851, by a French religious order which, being French, knew something about making wine! We take a very interesting tour of the winery building, which describes the religious order’s journey to New Zealand, establishment of the winery, constructing and then moving the building due to flood risk, and damage caused in the 1931 earthquake. The tasting includes about 7 wines and most unfortunately aren’t to our taste, but we do buy a Malbec and a Late Harvest, which is not as sweet as spatlese we have had in Germany, and also a winery door poster matching the one we bought in Marlborough, which now is on the wall beside it's sister in my bar.

Another view from the winery: this flat land was the original site, prone to flooding.

We also meet a nice couple from further north, very experienced 'motor campers', who show us their caravan on a Fiat chassis which they designed themselves and had built in Nelson. They also explain New Zealand 'Freedom Camping': by law every municipality has to have a no-charge caravan site. You must have a self-contained unit (so no tents), and the municipality sets rules regarding the length of stay (e.g. in high season it could just be overnight). The municipality of course determines the site's location, and it could be downwind of something unpleasant, but every one we see is in a great location. In Napier for example it was right on the seafront between two nice hotels, across from the main shopping street! Could Freedom Camping provide us the roadtrip flexibility we are looking for? As an aside, the couple reveal that on their arrival they assumed brightonbonnie was the tour guide, as she was dressed so elegantly! So if we return perhaps there is a job here for at least one of us!

Gisbourne, walking from our caravan park into town with a view of the Bay of Poverty.

Leaving the winery we both make planning errors, brightonbonnie not insisting on lunch and me assuming North Island Rules would apply, i.e. there would be lots of towns and lunch options. Wrong. The country between Napier and Gisbourne along Highway 2 is very underpopulated. We stop at Wairoa and find nothing, decide to push on nibbling on snacks in the car. So overall this is not a pleasant trip though there are some nice sections through low forested hills and a few views of the sea.

The ubiquitous Captain Cook, and his first landfall in New Zealand.

Gisborne however makes everything right. The caravan park is ideally situated on the Bay of Poverty right by the town, our cabin is back to standard, and reception gives us several recommendations for dinner. Around 5 we walk into town along the seafront, a nice pathway with at one point a statue of James Cook, who made his first New Zealand landfall here looking for supplies and was chased off by Maori, hence the name he gave to the bay. The Rivers is the first place we check and it feels right. An excellent young server makes a good recommendation about the catch of the day, Tarakihi, which interestingly is served with excellent scalloped potatoes, and ensures brightonbonnie’s sirloin is (over)cooked exactly as ordered. And because we are walking we also share a very nice bottle of Pinot Noir from Otago. Well satisfied, we walk back along the seafront, now dark and deserted except for a few young people fishing.

PS - if you've enjoyed this post please check out my first 14 New Zealand posts, the previous 19 posts in my Australia series, and the 3 before that as we started our 90 day roadtrip in Tahiti!

And please join us in my next post as we travel on to Rotorua, where I learn the Haka.

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You can find this, and other exciting adventures from some great travelling Steemians at Steemit Worldmap (I just stole this line from @shellyduncan so thanks to her for a great way to publicize a great travelers tool):

!steemitworldmap -39.499022 lat 176.917974 long Hawkes Bay New Zealand d3scr