Indy Yachts

Thursday afternoon March 4th through Sunday March 7th. After our 3 hour ferry ride we drove to our next stop, Havelock North in the Hawke’s Bay Region. We had booked at Porters Boutique Hotel, a fairly new, small, very comfortable hotel in a nice town. We had a spacious room that we would call home for 3 nights. The next day, Friday, we went off to explore a new hike. We found a series of tracks in nearby Te Mata Park. We chose the longest route to the summit. I’m glad we went in the direction we chose because some of the climbs up were a hands and feet crawl. I wouldn’t have wanted to go down them. I’m not great with heights so it was a bit of a challenge for me. There were some narrow paths with steep drops too. We were rewarded with nice views. I will note that you can drive to the summit too, but that would be too easy. It was less challenging going down. After a nice pizza dinner in town at Alessandro’s we headed to sleep. We were woken up about 2:30 am with the room shaking. There was an earthquake offshore. It lasted long enough to wake us up and discuss what we should do but it stopped so we went back to sleep. The next morning there were a few more further north and offshore which we did not feel. Many seaside towns in the North were evacuated with tsunami warnings. The boat and our crew in Auckland were fine. Nothing materialized and the warning was called off. Saturday morning Phil spent the morning on calls and a NYYC Club Night presentation about the America’s Cup. Was 4 pm on Friday in NY. We spent a good part of the afternoon at a wine tasting and presentation at the Smith & Sheth Cellar Door which was right beside the hotel. Phil had randomly run into one of the owners the day before. Smith & Sheth, with one of their labels, Cru, is a sponsor of American Magic and we had met Steve before in Auckland. He kindly offered us two tickets to their tasting. It was very informative and tasty. What a small world, we had no idea they were in Havelock North. We had a good Sushi dinner at Piku Restaurant and headed back to pack for our journey back to Auckland. The COVID Tier level was lowered to 2 in Auckland and 1 throughout the rest of the country as of 6am Sunday morning. We made a quick stop in Napier to look at the Art Deco buildings they are known for. The town was destroyed in a 1931 earthquake and was rebuilt in the then fashionable Art Deco style. It is well preserved with many of the buildings remaining. We were back in Auckland early afternoon, ready for the America’s Cup races!