Explore Poverty Bay, Hawke’s Bay and the Wairarapa
Most of the Wairarapa region is archetypal Kiwi sheep country, with wool-flecked green hills stretching into the distance. In recent years, however, the southern half of the region has increasingly benefited from free-spending weekenders from Wellington visiting the boutique hotels, innovative restaurants and many wineries surrounding Martinborough, the region’s current wine capital and, along with Greytown, its most appealing settlement.
North of Masterton, the region’s main commercial centre, the Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre provides a wonderful opportunity to witness ongoing bird conservation work; to the south, Featherston is a base for walks up the bed of the Rimutaka Incline Railway.
Back on the coast, the laidback holiday settlement of Castlepoint is good for swimming and surfing, and Cape Palliser is the ideal spot for blustery mind-clearing walks and dramatic coastal scenery.
Cross the Rimutaka Range towards Wellington and you’re into the Hutt Valley, full of commuter-belt communities, none of which really warrants a stop until you reach Petone, on the outskirts of the capital.
Brief history
The establishment of New Zealand’s earliest sheep station in the 1840s on rich alluvial lands close to present-day Martinborough paved the way for development by the progressive Small Farm Association (SFA). This was the brainchild of Joseph Masters, a Derbyshire cooper and longtime campaigner against the separation of landowner and labourer, who sought to give disenfranchised settlers the opportunity to become smallholders. Liberal governor George Grey supported him and in 1853 suggested the SFA should persuade local Maori to sell land for the establishment of two towns – Masterton and Greytown.
Initially Greytown prospered, and it retains an air of antiquity rare among New Zealand towns, but the routing of the rail line favoured Masterton, famed chiefly today for the annual Golden Shears sheepshearing competition.
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Martinborough
Martinborough
Over the last couple of decades, little MARTINBOROUGH, 18km southeast of Featherston, has been transformed from an obscure farming town into the centre of a compact wine region synonymous with some of New Zealand’s finest reds. It’s within easy striking distance of Wellington, and weekends see the arrival of the smart set to load up their shiny 4WDs at the cellar doors. On Mondays and Tuesdays much of the town simply shuts down to recover.
Brief history
Martinborough was initially laid out in the 1870s by landowner John Martin, who named the streets after cities he had visited on his travels and arranged the core, centred on a leafy square, in the form of a Union Jack. For over a century the town languished as a minor agricultural centre until the first four wineries – Ata Rangi, Dry River, Chifney and Martinborough (all of which produced their first vintages in 1984) – re-invented it as the coolest, driest and most wind-prone of
the North Island’s grape-growing regions. With the aid of shelterbelts, strategically planted trees and hedges, that splice the vineyards, the wineries produce some outstanding Pinot Noir, notable Cabernet Sauvignon, rich Chardonnay and richly aromatic Riesling.
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Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre
Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre
Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre is one of the best places in the country to view endangered native birds and is staffed by people engaged in bringing those birds back from the edge. Kokako, kakariki, Campbell Island teal, hihi, kiwi, takahe and more can be found in spacious aviaries set along the trails through lowland primeval forest. Beyond the trail several thousand hectares of forest are used for reintroducing birds to the wild. The generous size of the cages on the trail and the thick foliage often make the birds hard to spot, so you’ll need to be patient.
More immediate gratification comes in the form of a stand of Californian redwoods, a nocturnal kiwi house, a new behind-the-scenes kiwi breeding facility, regular kiwi chick feedings (check times on entry), reptilian tuatara and closed-circuit cameras trained on other birds’ nests. A twenty-minute audiovisual gives a moving account of the decline of birdlife in New Zealand, or you can watch long-fin eels and kaka being fed. Alternatively join a two-hour guided tour with a ranger to add context, or a twilight tour to add atmosphere and change perspective. There is also a picnic area and café.
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Long names and famous flutes
Long names and famous flutes
Visitors in search of the esoteric might want to stray along SH52, which makes a 120km tar-sealed loop east towards the rugged coastline from dull Waipukurau, 50km south of Hastings, re-emerging at Dannevirke. Almost 50km south of Waipukurau (and 6km south of Porangahau, where there is rare coastal access), a sign marks the hill known as Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, which, unsurprisingly, rates as one of the world’s longest place names; roughly, this mouthful translates as “the hill where Tamatea, circumnavigator of the lands, played the flute for his lover”.
