Raglan is one of the world’s great surf spots, and so we drove down for some beginner lessons at Ocean Beach. We are terrible surfers, but it was an amazing time. It’s easy to see why people get obsessed.
View from our window: Tomic ranch, Hamilton, New Zealand. 10:30 am, 23 December 2013.
I was not anticipating temples in New Zealand, but it turns out that the Mormon temple in Hamilton is a must-do Christmas outing for its renowned Christmas lights. More impressive than the lights was the Mormon organization of the parking and traffic, with dozens of formally clad gentlemen on hand to direct the hundreds of cars into ad hoc parking lots. All that without coffee.
New Zealand proving its volcanic bona fides. Rotorua and surrounding countryside are particularly steamy and bubbly, allowing for lovely hot spring bathing. Downside is a rather pungent miasma over the area.
Lake Taupo and Huka Falls
Another delicious lunch at another beautiful Hawke’s Bay winery. Oysters, fried pork belly, lamb rump, beef fillet, hay ice-cream with rhubarb and white chocolate, deconstructed lemon meringue pie, all washed down with Craggy Ridge’s finest wines.
Napier was flattened in 1931 by an earthquake, and completely rebuilt in an Art Deco style.
A decadent lunch at the Mission Estate winery in Hawke’s Bay
View from our window: Ahuriri, Napier, New Zealand. 10:00 am, 19 December 2013.
In and around Hawke’s Bay: beaches, port, cliffs, cycle paths, black swans, Cape Kidnappers, wineries, the bay.