For the last couple of weeks we have been in Hawke's Bay spending our time in the two main towns of Hastings and Napier, and a small place in-between called Clive.

It's Autumn at the moment, equivalent to October in the Northern Hemisphere. The leaves on the trees are turning gold and crimson and starting to fall off. Yet in the day when the sun is out it doesn't feel like an English Autumn at all, it's more like summer with temperatures hitting 20 degrees celsius. I still haven't needed my ski jacket on so it must be warm!

Hawke's Bay has the added benefit of being in a micro-climate. It's usually a good couple of degrees higher than the rest of the country and has less rain. We certainly noticed the increase in temperature coming from Taranaki.

When the sun goes down you realise it's Autumn though, and with only a hot water bottle as central heating our noses get a little cold at night!

On the way to Hawke's Bay we stopped overnight at a small campsite at Mangaweka on State Highway 1. The camp's backdrop was large imposing white cliffs which were carved out by the river running below. It was basic but did have the essential flush toilet and only $16 for the night so we were happy.

We had planned to take a scenic short cut from Mangaweka to Hawke's Bay but we found the road was closed. So we had to go a long route round down nearly to Palmerston North and then up to Hastings. It was a lot further but the road was a lot better so we didn't lose much time.

Hastings is quite a nice town with a railway line running through the middle and rather than looking awful they have actually made a feature of it. We went to the iSite and the woman told us about a special promotion on at an ice cream shop nearby so we had a $1 ice cream each. We stayed at the Hastings Top 10 and although it should have been nice as it was positioned on the banks of a nice river, the camp was dominated by a ghetto of 'permanents'. These are people living in fixed caravans on an area of the camp, and are described by some camp owners as being unemployed pot smokers.

Richard stayed up almost all night to listen to the Grand National, unfortunately he didn't back the 100/1 winner.

The woman in the iSite had told us about a Farmers' Market which is held every Sunday. We went along and Richard tried as many of the free samples as possible - from cheese to flavoured olive oil to locally produced wine. The only thing that tickled our fancy was some broccoli and carrots, plus a pack of pork sausages for Richard. Unfortunately the sausages were terrible, the worst he'd eaten and tasted of lard.

Near Hastings there's a small town called Havelock North where there's a 399 meter high hill, Te Mata Peak. As we drove to the top we saw paragliders floating down after jumping from the top. The peak had great views across the whole Hawke's Bay area, including Napier and Cape Kidnappers.

For a little entertainment we went to the cinema in Havelock North to watch Confessions Of A Shopaholic. The cinema was a boutique type with large reclining chairs and holders to put your wine. The story was light hearted and fun, the script could have done with a bit of tightening up, but it was intriguing seeing how someone approaches shopping in completely the opposite way to me.

A short distance from Hastings is a small place called Clive. The town isn't anything to write home about but it's situated by a river, pebbled beach and marshland. At the weekend the local families were out on their jet skis and boats, others water skiing and learning to kite surf. We took a stroll along the river watching them all have fun. It's interesting seeing the contrast to how the majority of families in England spend their weekends - Clive isn't unique either, we've observed it across the country.

A guy at the campsite in Clive told us that there was a lot of bird life in the marsh area, so we packed up a picnic and went for a walk. I wasn't holding out much hope of spotting any species I know because you could put our knowledge of birds on a postage stamp. I got a surprise when I recognised to two kingfishers, loads of swallows, and hundreds of black swans. I also spotted a bird camouflaging itself by standing absolutely still with its beak in the air looking like a piece of log. I took a photo and described it to the guy back at the campsite. With his New Zealand bird book we were able to confirm it was an Australasian Bittern.

We really liked the campsite at Clive. There were mainly 'permanents' living there, but they weren't the usual type. It was mostly retired people and they kept their sites and garden areas immaculate. I thought there must have been a competition to see who could grow the best roses. However, we later found out that five camp members had their own distillery in their sheds (it's legal in NZ), so there would more likely be a contest for best whisky! At $20 a night it was a bargain so we stayed over the Easter period too as all the other camps were increasing their rates.

On Good Friday, there was a local rugby match going on between Clive and Hastings so we stopped to watch. We saw the second teams play and the standard was pretty good in terms of support play and attacking. The passing wasn't bad either, but the kicking was terrible - one of the Hastings team missed a penalty from 10 yards directly in front of the post. The final score was 25 - 21 to Hastings.

About 10km north of Clive is Napier. We went their for a day because we were keen to see the art deco style buildings that were built after the 1931 earthquake which destroyed most of the town and surrounding area.

Napier has a lively atmosphere mainly due to it's Mediterranean temperatures and café culture. We certainly felt quite at home there basking in the sun as we did a walking tour of the town following a leaflet we bought from the iSite.

The leaflet proved quite informative and worth the $5. We learned about the stripped classical style and saw examples of it - flat pillars that barely protrude out. We also saw quite a few Spanish Mission style buildings with terracotta tiles on the roof and tiled parapets.

The main architect of the art deco styled buildings was a New Zealander, Louis Hay. He was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright who was a pioneer in modern American architecture. Many modern buildings have followed the art-deco design and older ones are being preserved.

Walking around Napier you could see the style and it felt a lot classier than all the other towns in New Zealand. Definitely worth a visit whether you are into architecture or not.

In Hastings over Easter there was a Vintage Car Show so we decided to go along. The event didn't just have old cars like you'd think. There was a collection of old lawn mowers and tractors, plus an early 1900 or so Hay Bailer. We are in farming New Zealand so I guess some people find them interesting.

We did enjoy looking round the old cars. The English made ones were familiar to us such as the Ford Prefects, 1950's Jags, Wolselys, and a Ford Anglia police car. We were less familiar with the American cars but loved their more flamboyant styling.

There was a 1962 Mk2 Jag for sale at $20,000 (£8,000) which we thought was quite reasonable. We also spotted a Ford Ute which had a trailer tent perched on the back, it had been parked in the next pitch to us at the Hastings campsite and caught peoples interest.

Our three favourites of the day were… A 1937 Rolls Royce Phantom III, in original condition and looking like it had just come out the factory. The rear of the car had a fold out table for picnics - I could just see myself at Royal Ascot in it! A 1935 Auburn 851 Boattail Speedster which had beautiful lines and shapes. And a 1950 Studebaker Champion Starlite Coupe. The front grille was styled like a propeller and the speedometer resembled a jukebox.

The show also had activities going on, so we watched one called the Bridge to Nowhere. The organisers had made up a large paddling pool filled with two or three inches of water. There were a series of blocks and planks which the contestants had to assemble to make a bridge across the pool. The catch being that there was only one way of putting it all together. The vintage car would be driven up to the edge of the pool then the team members would spring out of the seats or jump off the running boards and try to assemble the bridge as fast as possible. Once completed the driver would inch his way carefully across the bridge trying not to fall off. It was quite funny watching the teams' different approaches to building the bridge, and especially funny watching them slipping and sliding and falling in the water giving them rather wet bums!

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Hawke's Bay - from the architecture in Napier and the sunny warm days, to the friendly camp and Pirates Whiskey in Clive.

Katy