Spirit of the Antipodes Day 14

 

A gannet safari was first on the agenda today, so we assembled outside our hotel at 8:15am, following the usual buffet breakfast, and were met by our coaches (well, most of us were!) 

No sooner had we set off for Cape Kidnappers, site of the world’s largest gannet colony, than we got caught up in road diversions created by the Ironmaori triathlon. Our two coaches comically drove around in circles for a while trying to navigate the detours, the drivers and traffic marshalls exchanging angry words and gesticulations. 

To add to the angst, one of our tour leaders received a phone call to say we had left one couple behind in Napier. An uber was quickly organised to bring them to the departure point for the safari and we continued on through the melee of cyclists and traffic to the Cape. A 25 minute trip had taken us an hour. To add to the delay, we then had to wait, in the rain for the missing couple to join us. 

We were finally underway in 3 4WD safari buses, both the delays and the heavy rain casting a pall over our safari. 

The route was firstly through private farmland on well made sealed roads provided by the farmer, providing access to the PGA rated Golf Course and exclusive accommodation options on offer, but once past the golf course, the road became  a narrow, one-lane gravel farm track with steep drops into treed gorges between the rolling hills. 

On the plus side, the views were spectacular, and the rain appeared to be lifting. Through one of the many gates however, our driver realised the third bus had disappeared from sight, so again we waited. He kept us entertained with informative commentary and our tour leader contributed his own anecdotes to pass the time. After an anxious wait and a phone call to the third driver, it was decided the two leading buses should continue out to the colony; they were ok, but he was having trouble with the 4WD function which didn’t seem to be locking in. 

So we moved on to spectacular views across Hawkes Bay as the clouds lifted briefly and the bus stopped on top of the cliff above the Shark Tooth Rock and beside a huge colony of gannets. 

The birds, who mate for life, were busy looking after their nests, some already with hatchlings, others still sitting on eggs and they were not the least bit disturbed by three busloads of curious tourists pulling up to peer at them and take photos of them. 

Looking from the top of the cliff down onto the Shark Tooth Rock, there was a smaller colony which just looked like a carpark, all neatly lined up on the flat rock-face below the cliff. 

Tea, coffee and biscuits were being served from the back of one of the buses, just as the rain returned, so we grabbed some and jumped back on our bus, bracing ourselves for the trip back down the steep, and now very wet road. All’s well that ends well, and it had definitely been worth the hour each way from the safari tour base, to hear about the intriguing life of the gannet and to see these birds up close and personal. 

We were back on the coaches and pulling away from the safari building at about the time we were meant to be arriving at our winery lunch,  but our hosts weren’t phased and it wasn’t a long trip to Black Barn Winery in the Havelock Hills.

Dave the winemaker, provided us with a comprehensive guide to tasting and appreciating the two wines they were showcasing today, as well as a little of the history of vineyards in the area, and Black Barn in particular. 

Following our tasting, we were served a delicious meal of honey glazed milk bread, slow cooked shoulder of lamb with almond cream and mesclun salad, and truffle oil shoestring fries, chased down with a delicious lemon posset dessert with strawberries and burnt meringue, all accompanied by their very own and very drinkable 2025 Chardonnay. 

We were meant to have a free afternoon, although there was little afternoon left by the time we arrived back at the hotel after all the day’s delays. We opted to take advantage of the guest laundry and do another quick load of washing before retiring, with cups of tea in hand, to the balcony overlooking the foreshore and the ocean beyond. It was time for some gentle R&R after another busy day full of unexpected surprises.