Napier, Hawkes Bay

Last updated on 27 June 2016

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase with one of these links, I recieve a small commission at no additional cost to you. Read the full Affiliate Policy.

Sometimes when you gotta go somewhere, you gotta jump in the car and go. After a phone call about the passing away of a great-uncle of mine, we headed down to Napier for the funeral a few weekends ago.

It’s about 5 hours, give or take a quarter hour, from Auckland down to the Hawkes Bay, where Napier is the largest of the cities down there. Taupo is about halfway between, and, like if you were to head down to Wellington, it’s the perfect spot, and the perfect time of day to stop for lunch. If it’s a nice day, you’ll get a view like this:

The road to Napier from Auckland, if you’re unfamiliar, is an odd one. From Auckland to Taupo you follow route 1, and it’s highway a lot of the way. After Taupo, you veer off to the left and follow the road to Napier through the mountains. It’s long, it’s windy, and can be quite dangerous if you don’t do it often enough (and therefore not know the twists and turns).

We spent just two nights and one full day in Napier, with the funeral on the Monday. While it was a short little trip, I was able to show my lovely new American friend, J, a bit of the North Island on the way down. She then got the bus from Napier to back to Wellington where she’s currently based, and my mum and I drove back to Auckland, via the cheese shop in a little town called Mercer. If you’re heading by on Route 1, pop off at Mercer and check it out. Amazing huge rounds of cheese, and super great prices! Worth it!

So that was our little trip to Napier! I love random trips like that, and while the reason for the trip was sad and a little unexpected, it was great to be able to catch up with family that we hadn’t seen in a long while.

I used to go over to Napier at least once every year, and even though we live in Auckland now, it still seems to be the case. If you’re in the North Island at all and you haven’t been to Napier, make sure you get over there sometimes. It’s a very cool town.