Helen and Randall on the road

Lovely drive from Taupo to Napier and then on to Clive to the Clive Colonial Cottages where Randall had booked us in for my birthday.

A bed! A REAL bed!

The lovely owners were kind enough (although possibly unwise) to lend us bikes and suggest an itinerary that took in several vineyards. As it turned out this was less of an alarming prospect than it originally sounded as most of the cycling was on a network of dedicated cycle paths away from the road. They’ve really thought this wine/bike thing through in Hawkes Bay apparently.

Erk!

The journey was quite beautiful, following the coast on one side and on the other apple orchards (this is fruit country) and vineyards. We rode out as far as the Te Awanga estate:

Where we sat and contemplated the view down across the vineyards to the sea, and stuffed our faces with the sharing platter, then got stuck into the wine tasting with the brilliant vintner/sommelier/whatever they are called, who even managed to engage Randall by talking wine chemistry; explaining that when you swish the glass you are not just ‘releasing the aroma’ but ‘volatising the esters’ and so forth, which was a great conversation to listen in to (with glass of wine in hand…) – we managed to leave with two bottles of the incredible Viognier (for those what is interested, it’s very slightly oaked which gives it what I found was the missing note in a Viognier).

The next vineyard was Clearview but we had already missed the cellar door timings for them so we went straight on to Elephant Hill who have an all day restaurant to were bound to be open. They weren’t doing tastings any more (again, finished at 5pm!) but we had a bottle of the 2008 Sauv Blanc Reserve with some bread and locally made olive oil (divine!) and made a booking for the next night for dinner, before toddling and swerving home in the twilight in time for a bottle of Viognier, cheese and crackers, and bed.