Sunday 1 January 2006 – Tiki Tour


Trip: Mountain Valley – Napier – Whakatu – Havelock North

End Mileage: 174200

Start Mileage: 174083

Distance Travelled: 117

A leisurely start to the day. We had the standard breakfast camping fare of Bagels, Bacon and Coffee – a good way to start the day. Luckily the laundry from yesterday was all dry so put that away. One challenge was I dropped a Kathmandu towel on the ground – WOW does stuff (grass, dirt, seeds) stick to them.

BILITY camp site views at Akarangi.



View from BILITY.


Finally got organised to go for a tour just after 11am. Gee, how sad, off to try the vineyards.

Made it to Craggy Range at 11:20am. Just looked, didn’t buy anything from here – a tad expensive.

Back to Te Mata – only brought a couple of key rings from here, gee we are big spenders. No doubt we’ll make up for this at other places on the trip.

Next was Akarangi Vineyard – an old church that looks like it’s being renovated but from what other people have said has looked that way for a while now. We each brought a Riesling ($15).



Next stop was CJ Pask at 12:35pm just outside Hastings. Brought wine and glasses from here, oh dear, the purchasing starts… It’ll continue for a while yet no doubt.

Went to Unison at 1pm, I got one bottle of wine. It’s a small vineyard run by a husband and wife team. The Cellar Door is the actual cellar – down a steep driveway and into this lovely cool room with all the barrels of wine maturing. Awesome.

Next stop was Ngatarawa at 1:30pm. We managed to find some wine and glasses to purchase here as well.

Then Sileni – wow, only looked here, no purchasing. Amazing shop that sells all sorts – oils, cheeses, sauces, plates etc. Oh and wine! A large restaurant as well that seemed to be doing a roaring trade.

Then Alpha Domus – again only looked.

Our next challenge was to try and find some food. Silly us – it is after all a public holiday. We had tried a couple of vineyards (well why not) that offered food but none were open. So we went back to Hastings to see what we could find. Amazing – there were no cafés open… Getting a tad hungry by now as it was about 2pm. Well surprise surprise we did find some open places in Hastings – The Warehouse, New World and Subway. So Subway for lunch and a brief food top-up shop at New World. Left Hastings about 3:40pm and sorry to say won’t be rushing back there. Filled up with diesel on the way out of town – honest it wasn’t to make sure we didn’t get stuck there! ;-)

We went out of town along the “express-way” and found the wood turning place for The Bay but unfortunately it was closed – very disappointing, mind you you’d think we’d be used to places being closed by now! Variety of crafts in the place and looks like shops of some kind. There was pottery, furniture, iron sculpture and of course wood. We did find a café but (ha ha) it was closed.

Drove back to Havelock North and went up Te Mata Peak. Amazingly windy up the top of the hill but worth the view (and quite glad we didn’t cycle or run up the peak like others we saw).

Craggy Range from the top of Te Mata Peak.



Views from Te Mata Peak.



Te Mata Peak Car Park (and views).



Te Mata Peak

The Legend of Te Mata

Many centuries ago the people living in pa (fortified villages) on the Heretaunga Plains were under constant threat of war from the coastal tribes of Waimarama.

At a gathering at Pakipaki (5km south of Hastings) to discuss the problem, the solution came when a wise old woman (kuia) sought permission to speak in the marae. "He ai na te wahine, ka horahia te po, " she said. (The ways of a woman can sometimes overcome the effects of darkness).

Hinerakau, the beautiful daughter of a Pakipaki chief, was to be the focal point of a plan. She would get the leader of the Waimarama tribes, a giant named Te Mata, to fall in love with her, turning his thoughts from war into peace. The plan succeeded, but she too fell in love.

The people of Heretaunga, however, had not forgotten the past and with revenge the motive, demanded that Hinerakau make Te Mata prove his devotion by accomplishing seemingly impossible tasks. The last was to bite his way through the hills between the coast and the plains so that people could come and go with greater ease.

Te Mata died proving his love and today his half-accomplished work can be seen in the hills in what is known as The Gap or Pari Karangaranga (echoing cliffs).

His prostrate body forms Te Mata Peak, the legend says. At sunset one can often see, in the mists which stretch from the crown of Kahuraanake, the beautiful blue cloak with which the grieving Hinerakau covered the body of her husband before leaping to her own death from the precipice on the Waimarama side of the peak. The gully at the base of the cliff was formed when her body struck the earth.

Looking towards the Peak from Hastings the huge bite that choked Rongokako can be seen. The outline of his body forms the skyline, the peak was then known as Te Mata o Rangokako meaning “The Face of Rongokako”. The name commonly used since this has been shortened to Te Mata Peak.

The top of Te Mata Peak is a “hog back” ridge of erosion resistant limestone dipping steeply to the west. Across the Tukituki valley immediately to the east is another limestone rock ridge. These sedimentary rocks – originally deposited in horizontal layers on the seabed have been titled and bowed upward by the geological forces generated by the collision of the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates.

Te Mata Peak gives a view of Napier to the north, Mahia Peninsula across Hawkes Bay, soft rock hill country to the south and east, and across the Heretaunga plains a view of the Ruahine, Kaweka and Maungaharuru ranges with the volcano Mount Ruapehu often visible behind them.

Back to the camp site and we just relaxed, sorted out the grass on the towel – boy that was sticky stuff and cooked dinner. It was nice to stay in one place and not have to move. Seemed to be a family orientated camping ground – the trailer was used to take kids on for a ride around the place. It was set up to wobble from side to side and seemed to “bounce”.



So open Vineyards visited in the Bay were:


Links

East Cape and Feilding index page

BILITY home page

Te Mata Peak