Tuki Vineyards, New Zealand

One of the classic pics of Hawke’s Bay is from Te Mata Peak at sunrise. We had three nights within a 15 minute drive of the peak, but the weather didn’t cooperate, it was overcast and rainy every morning.

Later this morning the clouds parted a bit, so we drove over to Te Mata. You can drive all the way to the peak; many people instead park at the lot at the main gate and then hike up the rest of the way. We drove further in to a parking lot about 500m drive from the top, cause the remaining road was single car width and takes forever to drive.

So we parked and walked up to the peak. It wasn’t too busy, about 50 or so other tourists also at the top. The forecasted rain probably kept some folks away. We quickly took our pics, cause we could see the rain showers approaching us. We made it about half way back to the car when the rain reached us, we had our raincoats so we were fine.

We didn’t have much else on our itinerary today. We drove to Hastings, a twin town to Havelock North, and took more pics of art deco buildings. Almost all the stores were still closed for the holidays.

We got back to our place and got ready for some wine tastings. There’s a couple vineyards within walking distance, so I had called earlier in the morning to book the tastings.

First up was Black Barn Vineyards. It’s a popular stop on the tasting route, they’re set up to handle about 100 people. They did sell charcuterie pick-your-own boards which was great for us, as we hadn’t had lunch. So had some cured meats and cheeses and sampled some wines. Can't go wrong with that!

Te Mata Vineyards was a five minute walk back towards our place. They’re a smaller vineyard with a more intimate tasting room.

We then walked another five minutes to get to our cottage. It was cool that both vineyards were within walking distance , I hadn’t planned around that. Otherwise it’s not really feasible for me to do any tastings as the driver.

Later in the evening we had our dinner, grilled steak paired with a Cabernet blend from Te Mata. I haven't really liked any of the bbq's at the bnb's we stayed at, they don't get hot enough for a decent sear. Oh well, at least the wine was good!