15.08 Hawke's Bay: Just Visiting & Soon Away

8.A Pohutakawa in Bloom, December 2014 / January 2015, Ahuriri, Napier

The high season of pohutakawa blooming has now passed. And so, too, is our season of living in New Zealand. Jean and I are thankful for our time here and thankful that our two daughters were able to visit with us last week. 

Inevitably, others—be they family, friends, or strangers—bring different perspectives. With different perspectives at least there are opportunities for new insights or novel ventures. A case in point is the wine tour the four of us took last week. Despite the country's extensive winemaking—Wikipedia lists ten major New Zealand winemaking regions—Jean and I had never paid a visit to a Kiwi vineyard. Our daughters' visit caused us to correct that omission, an omission easily corrected in the Hawke's Bay Region. 

Hawke's Bay has the oldest winery in New Zealand, Mission Estate Winery, founded in 1851. The region embraces the second largest New Zealand winemaking area, with over 70 wineries. Numerous wine tours, self-guided, by van or bus, and even by bike are available directly or through Napier's i-Site (and presumedly other i-Sites). 

I was confronted with so many wine tour choices that I sought and received guidance from one of my daughters on what tour to take. She in turn relied on Trip Advisor, which identified Grape Escape Ltd as a good choice. Grape Escape we did. We weren't disappointed.

In our afternoon tour along with an Australian couple we were taken to four winemakers: Sileni, Ngatarawa, Trinity Hill, and Ash Ridge, all of them near Bridge Pa, west of Hastings. At other times and in other seasons we may have been taken to other wineries. In any event at each winery we were afforded a sampling of whites and reds and sweet and dry wines. I pretty much stuck to the whites. As little as I sampled (I could have sampled all), I was thankful not to be driving. Thankful, too, that I would never have to stand an examination on viniculture or winemaking. It seems there's an endless number of factors that underlie the making of a good wine, no matter the variety. Apparently Bridge Pa's gravel soils (of glacial origin) are important to the grapes selected for winemaking in the Bridge Pa district.

Greg, our Grape Escape guide, provided cheese and crackers for an afternoon 'break' at Ngatarawa. Here are some photos from that winery, which apparently was hosting a confab of local winemakers the day of our visit.

8.B Former Horse Stable, Ngatarawa Wine Estate

8.C Another View (More artsy, yes?)

8.D Lily Pads at Ngatarawa Wine Estate

7.E Reflecting Pool and Picnic Table Meeting, Ngatarawa Wine Estate

8.F Trinity Hill Wine Showroom

8.G Trinity Hill Barrel Room

While we were heading into the Trinity Hill showroom a downpour began. The rain was and is much needed. It isn't unusual for certain areas of New Zealand to experience summer droughts, especially areas east of the mountains on both the North and South islands. Those mountains act as rain shields because rain-bearing storms tend to bear down on New Zealand from the west, especially the southwest. It should come as no surprise that Hawke's Bay has a Mediterranean climate, comparatively dry and sunny, and, hence, favoring the cultivation of stone fruits (peaches, apricots, nectarines, etc.) as well as certain varieties of grapes.

The day following the winery tour, Jean and I took our daughters to Clifton on Hawke Bay, where they boarded the Gannet Beach Adventures (GBA) outing of the day. That day the departure was scheduled for 10 AM. The GBA outings are dependent on the times of low tide, because the outings traverse the beach to Cape Kidnappers. Because Jean and I had previously taken an overland outing to Cape Kidnappers (See Blogpost 14.04), we elected to linger at the Clifton Cafe, during the four-hour duration of the cape expedition. Except for an extended walk along the beach toward Cape Kidnappers, Jean and I spent our time reading and sipping beverages at the cafe under shade trees.  Apparently the cape visitors had a delightful time, at least our daughters did. 

The following day we departed for Wellington, as reported in the preceding blogpost. Before closing, I want to offer up three closing remarks, remarks in part provoked by Clifton and its likes. The remarks seem apt as Jean and I wrap up our time in New Zealand and as I begin to wrap up publishing this blog.

Remark No. 1.: Clifton, set on a narrow strip between cliffs and shore, suffers from beach erosion. The erosion is caused by storm waves and high tides. Clifton is a very small community, hence it has limited resources to address the erosion. One wonders what will happen to the community. There's a master story unfolding here, as there is for every other community. It's just that in Clifton's case the master story is pretty obvious: it's man versus nature. I wouldn't want to bet on the outcome.

Remark No. 2.: There's also a story to be told about the tractors used by the Gannet Beach Adventures. I suppose I could have discovered and could still discover why the owning family has elected to import vintage Minneapolis Moline tractors, long out of production, to be used in the Gannet Beach Adventures. By comparison to Clifton's beach erosion challenge, the owning family's tractor preference is trivial. For that reason alone, perhaps, the story behind the preference isn't worth pursuing. But I've chosen not to uncover the story because GBA's curious 'tractor' practice is emblematic of everyday enigmas that at home leave us unprovoked but that away—as in travel—awaken a measure of wonder, wonder even in the trivial. When we as travelers or foreigners encounter strange or enigmatic practices, customs, tastes, etc., both high and low, we are called, sometimes forced, to cultivate the ability to 'read' what we see. That's part of the challenge and beauty of travel. A picture (or view) may be worth a thousand words, but bereft of a story, what does it say, if anything? What are we 'seeing' when we 'see'? It depends... on stories. And so we are beckoned to venture... and perhaps discover.

Remark No. 3.: As I've said before, seeing things or places or people for what they really are takes a measure of love, sometimes lots of love. And that implies engagement. In travel we engage and disengage at our own will, but never entirely. Like it or not, for example, we need to know the correct departure time of our flight, how much we can bring aboard, what we can bring aboard, etc. Yet, apart from certain unavoidable demands that life puts on us, we can become disengaged or, rather, primarily self-engaged. The danger of self-willed (or should I say 'self-centered'?) engagement is that we become enmeshed in preconceptions, misconceptions, and habitual desires. So enmeshed, we're unable to get 'beyond the bar'; we are at best blind and at worst enslaved.  If our travel here 'beyond the edge'—in New Zealand—has awakened us to the other, to some measure of the truth, to life, then we have been blessed. And for that I give thanks. But enough is the feast and enough these remarks... and back to the so-called 'mundane'.

Below is a photo of a GBA tractor driver delivering a safety talk—giving 'sight' to the otherwise blind, if you will—before the departure to Cape Kidnappers. There's also a closer shot of one of those Minneapolis Moline tractors.

8.H Driver/Guide Getting Tourists Ready to Go,
Gannett Beach Adventures

8.I A Vintage Minneapolis Moline Tractor

8.J A Cape Kidnappers Beach

For now and until my next, last post...

Warm regards,

Tim (& Jean)

PS. Below are more pohutakawa photos. They were taken in Ahuriri during the height of the blooming of New Zealand's 'Christmas tree'. The coast-loving pohutakawa are beautiful trees in any season but they're surely so when they blossom, whatever the shortcomings of these photos.