If you don’t visit Hawkes Bay often and want to explore while you’re here, these are the activities we most recommend:

Visit Te Mata Peak

This is one of our favourite places, where we had our first kiss and where Joshua proposed. There are heaps of walking tracks all over the peak for every fitness level, or you can drive to the car park at the top to get a great view over Hawkes Bay. There is an excellent café that is worth a visit as well.

Do an Art Deco Tour

Napier is famous as the Art Deco capital of the world after an earthquake in 1931 flattened the city and everything was rebuilt in the Art Deco style. You can go on a walking tour or take a vintage car ride.

Go for a swim at Waimārama

For those who are visiting from colder places (such as Dunedin) you might want to take advantage of the sunny Hawkes Bay weather and visit Waimārama Beach. Most of the beaches around Napier are stony and unsafe for swimming, so this is the place to go for a beach day.

Visit the statue of Pania

Napier is famous for our statue of Pania, a sea maiden who according to Māori legend fell in love with a human chief.

Visit the museum

It’s right in the centre of town, it’s free and has a great gift shop and an interesting exhibit on the 1931 Napier earthquake.

Visit a winery

If you like drinking wine, there are heaps of great places to go wine tasting. We don’t drink wine so we can’t recommend any of them, but Hawkes Bay is famous for its wine and apparently they are all good.

Napier Aquarium

Famously home of the Nice and Naughty Penguins of the month and year. They’ve got all sorts of cool critters, not just fish, and you can pay extra to feed the little blue penguins.

Gannet Safaris

You can take a tour to the Cape Kidnappers gannet colony to get up close to these beautiful birds. The colony is in the middle of predator free eco-sanctuary that also contains one of the most expensive golf courses in the world, it’s an interesting place.