Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand’s Great Wine Capital, offers an incredible array of unique experiences which, more often than not, involve a delicious glass of wine at the end! From cultural tours and cycleways, to passing the afternoon at a secret cinema, here’s just a taste of the unique experiences that visitors to Hawke’s Bay can enjoy.
Step Back in Time
Hawke’s Bay’s Napier city is one of the most complete Art Deco cities in the world, which makes it perfect for anyone who harbours a dream to step back to the Great Gatsby era.
Discover a taste of the city with The Art Deco Trust Tours who, after collecting you from your accommodation in one of the Art Deco Trust’s 1930s vintage cars, will take you on a spectacular, scenic tour of Art Deco Napier. Step back in time as you discover Napier’s remarkable history and revel in the glitz and glamour of the 1930s.
The tour even finishes at the region’s most iconic Art Deco Building, the National Tobacco Building, which is now home to The Urban Winery and Chardonnay expert Tony Bish. The perfect place for a special wine tasting and to devour a platter, before heading next door to the National Gin Distillery for a tour and tasting of their award-winning gins.
Travel by Bike
Hawke’s Bay is home to more than 200 kilometres of undulating limestone trails that interlink attractions and cities with the region’s leading wineries.
With so much ground to cover, oenophiles will delight in a guided tour of the Havelock North and Te Awanga wine regions with Master of Wine Simon Nash. Delivered by Coastal Wine Cycles, visitors can enjoy a personalised tour to selected wineries entirely by bike, with Simon tailoring the tour to meet your interest and wine knowledge. Seated on a classic Californian cruiser bike, this tour is about long lunches, wine tastings and sunny Hawke’s Bay days.
A Treat for the Senses
Smith and Sheth offer a truly unique wine tasting experience at their cellar door in the heart of Havelock North Village.
The Heretaunga Wine Studio is a multisensory experience, that is one of a kind, and offers visitors an exploratory taste of Hawke’s Bay, and New Zealand’s, wine story. Guests are guided by a Sommelier through three major winegrowing regions of New Zealand, sampling limited production wines in an interactive experience that awakens the senses. Audio and visual technology are skilfully used to delve deeply into every facet of our wine story and no two sessions of this experience are ever the same!
Travel the Classic New Zealand Wine Trail
Enjoy stunning scenery, beautiful forest parks, buzzing nightlife and indulgent food experiences as you journey from Hawke’s Bay to Marlborough in the South Island – with stops in Wairarapa and Wellington along the way. It’s not called the Classic New Zealand Wine Trail for nothing.
On your way south, make sure you stop at Ngā Ara Tipuna in Central Hawke’s Bay. Visit the site of Pukekaihau Pā, once a thriving Māori settlement. Or use your mobile phone to take a driving tour of seven more sites of cultural and natural significance around Waipukurau and Takapau. Experience the Waipukurau-Takapau rohe (tribal area) as it was 400 years ago. Learn about the network of pā (settlements), the people who inhabited them, and the water and forests that once covered much of this region.