Hawke's Bay

We are hoping to move to Hawke's Bay in December. We currently live in Northern Ireland. Have never been to New Zealand but from our research seems like a fantastic place to live. Can anyone tell me anything about the place and people?

You might have seen this already but it's a very good site. www.hawkesbaynz.com.

Hi Clairebear,
The major conurbation in Hawkes Bay is the beautiful Art Deco city of Napier. Pristine buildings, lovely gardens and a fabulous seafront. Every February they have an internationally acclaimed Art Deco weekend festival, where everybody dresses up in 20s/30s gear, out come all the classic cars of the period and everybody parades on the seafront promenade, drinking champagne as biplanes cross the skies. Then after sunset, the Art Deco open air bandstand lights up and a full jazz band plays all the favourites of the 20s and 30s. Everybody dances, drinks until pleasantly drunk and nobody causes any trouble. Pure NZ heaven :D

Thanks for your replies. Napier seems lovely, I also saw it on T.V. once. Does anyone know anything about the surrounding area eg. Hastings, Havelock North and other more rural areas. Would be interested to know what it is like for restaurants, shops etc.