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HAWKE'S BAY Golf
Cape Kidnappers. Clifton Road, Te Awanga:
Hawke’s Bay is a golfers’ paradise and is home to some of the country’s most
scenic golf courses, both old and new. The great local climate enables golf
enthusiasts to go for a hit most days of the year at one of the many private
(non members welcome) or public golf courses. Early in 2004 the newest, Cape
Kidnappers Golf Course opens. It is a multi million dollar course that looks out
across the Bay, providing stunning views from Te Awanga, across to Napier and
Mahia Peninsula. Cape Kidnappers Golf Course is a sister course of Kauri Cliffs.
Driving ranges and practice greens are available to prepare for the day ahead.
Designer Tom Doaks.
Go to Golf Page
EASTLAND Tours/Cruises
Hawkes Bay Half Day: This tour is designed for casual imbibers and wine
aficionados. Meet like- minded people and share an appreciation of Hawke's Bay's
fantastic wines. Taste great wines made with passion and learn ofthe areas
unique growing conditions. Take home great tasting wines and memories.
This is a small group tour of no more than 6 people. Smaller groups allow us to
design a tour around the palates of our guests and guarantee you will find the
wines that will tickle your taste buds. Enjoy our cheese platter in the grounds
of Ngatarawa beside the lilly pond a big favourite with our guests
Depart Napier 1pm – Return 5pm
Pickups and drop offs at your accommodation
Private Luxury Wine Tour (Full Day $695 per couple)
A tour designed for those serious about wine that are looking for a more
intimate experience of the regions wineries. Meet wine makers and people
passionate about wine. Learn about Terroir and how this creates different wine
styles. Your guide is personable and very knowledgeable about Hawke's Bay wine
and will design a tour with you preferences in mind. Wine education, regional
history and knowledge of the finest restaurant food in the region are all a part
of our service. Taste classic red varieties such as Syrah/Shiraz, Merlot,
Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Sangiovese and Pinot Noir. Hawke's Bay
vintners are also renowned for such white varieties as Chardonnay, Sauvignon,
Pinot Gris, Viognier. Semillon and Riesling are generally found in Noble desert
wines. Depending on availability you may also taste a sherry, ports and desert
reds.
Your tour begins from your accommodation where you will pick up in a comfortable
air-conditioned vehicle. We travel out of Napier towards the coast and visit
Elephant Hill. We then continue along the Tuki Tuki river valley route
undoubtedly one of the most scenic pastoral and vineyard drives in New Zealand.
People often compare this area to Tuscany.
Next stop Craggy Range where you will enjoy there wonderful wines with amazing
views of the Eastern side of Te Mata Peak.
We then continue on to Black Barn where you will enjoy a two course lunch with
sweeping views of the Heretaunga Plains
After lunch we will drive to top of Te Mata Peak elevation 399 meters. Te Mata
is short for Te Mata y Rongakako the face of the giant. You will hear more about
this giant in stories told as we travel. From the top of Te Mata you will enjoy
amazing 360 degree views of the Heretaunga Plains. Look out on orchards and
vineyards on the plains to forestry, sheep and cattle farming on the surrounding
hills. The formations of these hills and lower plains were created by glacial
activity during the last ice age, and create an amazing sense of awe. The peak
is on the AA list of 101 things Kiwis must see in New Zealand.
We leave the peak and travel out to the wineries of the Red Metal, Gimblett
Gravels sub regions visiting, Sileni, Trinity Hill and Ngatarawa. We then drive
back to Napier.
Welcome to Napier Prison Discover the truth behind the walls of New Zealand's oldest prison.The historic prison is located on Napier's Bluff Hill overlooking the
Pacific Ocean and beautiful Centennial Gardens. View the old quarry
where the inmates used work their hard days' labour to build the walls
that would keep them imprisoned. Napier Prison is just a few minutes
walk to the town centre and Marine Parade.
Guided tours are available at 9.30am and 3pm and audiotourz are
available every day from 9am-5pm (last entry at 4pm).
Things to do at Napier Prison:
- Take a 1 hour guided tour
- Grab an audio device and a map and go on a self-guided tour with
audiotourz
- Scare yourself silly on one of our scary night tours
- Take your mugshot and stocks photo
- Meet Basil, the resident ghost cat
Vacation Australia's Kangaroo Kelly will include any tour
of your choice in your custom planned itinerary!
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Vacation Australia provides self drive or driver guide luxury coach tours to independent groups.
Ask about our Preferred Partner Aussie Tour Operators for those who wish to join a group
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Inclusion choices | Pricing & Planning | Lowest cost airfares | Enquiries & Quotation
The sunny east coast...
Best known for its award-winning vineyards, the region will reward the visitor with a
mild, sunny climate and superb sightseeing. From the Rotorua/Taupo region you have a
choice of three routes, depending on how much time you have available. For the two
northern-most routes, you travel via the beach resorts of Whakatane and Opotiki in the
eastern Bay of Plenty, and then you have to decide whether to take Highway 35 around East
Cape or Highway 2 directly through the ranges to Gisborne.
Eastland - Hawkes Bay - Wairarapa - Other North Island regions
Via Highway 35 from Opotiki, it is stunning coastal scenery for the next 205 miles/330 km
around East Cape to Gisborne. This is ideal motorhome or camping country, where there are
small villages selling provisions and gas. Opotiki to Gisborne via Highway 2 is only 90
miles/ 145km, less than half the distance of Highway 35. This road cuts through the ranges
following the Waiocka River through the scenic Waiocka Gorge, approaching Gisborne through
the area's vineyard country.
The carved meeting houses of Gisborne
Gisborne, a city of just over 30,000, is the presents beautiful main service center for
the Eastland region. Its farmland. surf beaches and sunny, warm climate have long
attracted New Zealanders on vacation. An area of high Maori population, some of the
country's best surviving carved Maori meeting houses and churches are also found in the
area.
Around 62 miles/10Okm south of Gisborne is Wairoa. It is here that Highway 38, the
third route from the Rotorua region, meets Highway 2. It's 140 miles/ 226 km, from Rotorua
to Wairoa on Highway 38, with the highlight of the route being sparkling Lake
Waikaremoana, a gem set in the vast, remote, forested wilderness of the Te Urewera
National Park, the largest untouched expanse of native forest in the North Island. There's
excellent hiking and short walks througsh luxuriant forest, including the 30 miles/50 kin
Lake Waikaremoana Track. It's also great for bird watching, hunting, fishing, canoeing and
boating. Accommodation comprises a camping ground, cabins and a motel.
HAWKE'S BAY - Napier & Hastings
In common with other east coast areas, Hawke's Bay has long, sunny summers, well-suited to
the long-established wine and fruit-growing industries for which the region is well known.
The twin cities of Napier/Hastings have a combined population of 108,000. Both towns have
a range of motels, also camping grounds and cabins, bed and breakfasts, homestays and
farmstays.
The Art Deco heritage of Napier
Napier's man-made treasure is its glorious Art Deco buildings, all built in the early
1930s following a disastrous earthquake and fire which destroyed the city in 1931. A
sightseeing must in Napier is the beautifully landscaped Marine Parade foreshore with its
gardens and attractions.
The area's natural treasure is the famous gannet sanctuary at Cape Kidnappers, one of the
few such colonies in the world. It's at its peak in summer (September - March), and can be
reached by 4WD, tractor-trailer, or, at low tide, on foot. Hastings is the center of the
region's orchards and vineyards, with many of the latter having fine cafes. A special
treat for children is Fantasyland with fun rides and things to do.
How to get there: from Auckland, Rotorua is three hours drive direct from Auckland, or 45
minutes by plane. Both Mount Cook Airlines and New Zealand fly to Rotorua and coach
services provide land transport. Many international chains are located in Rotorua, and
there are also many excellent lodges, motels, guest houses, and hostels, as well as
camping grounds.
How to get there
Coach services run daily from Rotorua and Wellington, also the Bay Express (train) runs
daily from Wellington. Wellington - Napier takes 6 hrs; Rotorua - Napier takes around 4
hrs. Air NZ also runs a service from Wellington - the flight takes 50 min.
WAIRARAPA
Masterton is the main center of a rich sheep-farming district. The town has hotels,
motels, a motorhome park, and camping ground with cabins. About 12 miles/20 km north of
Masterton is the Mount Bruce National Wildlife Center, where rare and endangered birds and
other species are studied and bred. Here, you may observe the kiwi, New Zealand's
unofficial national bird; the giant weta, one of the world's heaviest insects; native
bats, our only native land mammals; also the takahe, a bird thought to be extinct until
re-discovered in the 1950s.
In the ranges to the west are the Ruahine and Tararua forest parks, long used by the
capital's city-dwellers for recreation. The parks are provided with a network of huts and
trails which begin at the many road-end picnic spots and rise through mature forest to
tussock-covered mountaintops. Near Martinborough, to the southeast, vineyards flourish in
near-perfect classic grape-growing conditions and attract wine buffs from "over the
hill" in the nation's capital-Wellington.
OTHER NORTH ISLAND REGIONS
New Plymouth - Wanganui - Mt Egmont (Taranaki)
MANAWATU - Palmerston North
Getting Around
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Budget Rental Car
Vacation NZ's
Preferred Partner |
Coach and air services operate from Auckland and Wellington and
there is a railway service from Wellington. Self drivers, you can rent a mini-motorhome,
4wd or rental car.
FEATURED HOTELS: Pebble
Beach Motor Inn
SUGGESTED ADD-ON TOURS
We use & recommend local experienced
Kiwi tour operators for all add-on tours that we can include in your
golf & leisure itinerary
Vacation NZ provides custom planned golf & leisure vacations
Vacation Australia's "Kangaroo Kelly" has comprehensively travelled
both Islands in NZ. He not only knows the
popular tourist regions but also knows the favourite places of the crafty
locals.
Go to
Enquiries & Quotation for your custom planned, competitively priced itinerary
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