Time for travel: Wellington to Napier

As 2023 fast approaches, rather than do a retrospective of 2022 (I got Covid, ate out at nice restaurants etc), I thought I would just concentrate on the here and now and take you on this year’s summer trip up to Hawke’s Bay instead. Regular readers will know that this is a favourite part of New Zealand for us, with beaches, vineyards and (usually) sunshine. This time we also had the joy of sharing it with my brother and sister-in-law from Sweden.

We set off on Thursday morning, leaving a sunny Wellington for a rather grey, if warm, ‘interior’, heading north, stopping in Woodvillle for lunch before taking a small detour to visit Norsewood. Norsewood is a small place 20km north of Dannevirke which was founded in 1872 by Norwegian settlers as a loggers’ settlement. These early settlers were requested by the government of the day to help clear the forest. There is a small but really interesting wee museum, full of artefacts and information about these early settlers, which also included some Danes and Swedes. The picture below is the outside of the museum.

There were a few things that caught my eye such as this bacon slicer, a gas powered iron (how would that work?) and a Swedish embroidery of a wedding.

Other old buildings can be seen such as the two below, a jail, post office and a display of old farming and logging equipment.

From there we drove the final leg to Napier, to bright blue skies, and streets decorated for the season. And of course…we looked at the Art Deco buildings which have featured on this blog in the past. For newer readers, Napier was flattened by an earthquake in 1931, and rebuilt in the style of the time.

For dinner that night, we headed over to Hunger Monger, for some delicious fish and seafood. There were oysters (shown here eaten), citrus marinated fish with coconut cream and pomegranate, John Dory on a bed of kumara with sesame broccoli (me) and fish and chips (the others). Lovely food and highly recommended should you be in the area.

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.

You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis. If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com or lofgren@thistlesandkiwis.or