The Road trip: Day 5 Hastings, Mount Bruce and Greytown!

If yesterday’s theme was Art Deco today’s certainly was food! Our first destination was the Silky Oak Chocolate Shop for breakfast. Learning my lesson (my poor Davenport chocolates melted into a little pool because I left them in the car) I devoured all my chocolate on the spot! Then we were off to the Squirrel’s Pantry, the cutest little shop at the end of a orchard where you could get any type of marmalade or preserve you could ever imagine!

After getting lost a couple of times (I blame it on the map!) we finally found our way to Arataki Honey, New Zealand’s largest honey producer. Apart from a shop, where you could buy honey and honey based products, they have also created an extensive interactive centre where one can learn everything about honey and bees, from the flowers to the extraction process.

On our way to Greytown we stopped at Mount Bruce bird reserve, one of the few places you could see kiwi birds! Unfortunately by the time we got there all the kiwis were asleep in their nests (you could see in a night cam) but we did got to see some kaka birds as well a number of rare plants and trees.







An hour later we arrived in Greytown, Blair’s home town. On our way to Blair’s parents’ house we stopped at Blair’s dad’s development. His dad and mum showed us around; the wood structure is now almost in place and Blair’s dad is currently working on the roof. After being introduced to Sam the dog and Ginger the cat we sat down for dinner (and a great dessert!) and then went for a walk across the town.