Experience the Twin Cities

Experience the TWIN CITIES lifestyle

Enjoy a TWIN CITIES holiday

Gannets were the Twin Cities first overseas tourists, arriving in their thousands more than three hundred years ago.

They’ve made this area their permanent summer vacation land – it is the only mainland colony of gannets in the world, and now thousands of tourists visit them.  Gannets and humans alike find that the main Twin Cities holiday season lasts from August to May, and some of both species stay through our mild winters as well.  You too can enjoy Hawke’s Bay’s bracing Mediterranean-type climate, discovered by the gannets hundreds of years ago.

Produced for the Twin Cities Public Relations Offices by KBR LacKinder Ltd, Hastings.

MEET THE TWIN CITIES people

Spend a day at Fantasyland, the storybook world with loads of play equipment.  The kids can visit Noddyland and a full-size castle, “sail” a pirate ship, play in a pumpkin and slide down a rocket.

Stand eyeball-to-eyeball with deep sea fish at the largest aquarium in the Southern Hemisphere.  Drive to the top of Te Mata Peak for a 360-degree view of the natural greenhouse of Hawke’s Bay.

SEE THE TWIN CITIES sights

You can travel the world and look at scenery, but if you don’t meet the people you might as well stay home and look at a travelogue.  When you come to the Twin Cities, get out of your coach or car and rub shoulders with the natives.  You’ll find them very friendly.

Drop in on inch-high people at Lilliput Village – enjoy the Planetarium and Starship Nova.

Revel in fine facilities at the Aquatic centre and Olympic Pool Complex.

Meander along the HB Wine Trail – visit some of our seven vineyards and sample local wines in vintage surroundings.

ENJOY TWIN CITIES attractions

Visit Marineland of NZ and be entertained by dolphins, sealions and other clowns of the sea.  You’ll never forget New Zealand’s biggest and brightest aquatic circus.

HAVE A TWIN CITIES picnic

Cornwall Park, with its placid lake and fountain, is typical of the picnic spots in the Twin Cities area.  Pack a picnic lunch and a bottle of the local wine and make the most of Hawke’s Bay’s fresh air and sunshine.

ENJOY TWIN CITIES beaches

Family groups will particularly enjoy the warm, sheltered waters of Westshore Beach, just north of Napier.

If you seek the challenge of the surf, unspoiled Waimarama and Ocean Beaches, south of Cape Kidnappers, are the place for you.  The waves that roll in around Bare Island have crossed thousands of miles of open Pacific Ocean.

LOOK THRU TWIN CITIES shops

Competition is fierce among Twin City retailers to supply the widest choice of goods at the best prices, topped by genuinely friendly service.

Several times a year different shopping centres close off their streets to motor traffic and hold open air market days.  The bargains and the entertainment are not to be missed.

ENJOY TWIN CITIES parks

Even having a good time can be wearying.  Take a break in one of Hawke’s Bay’s sheltered and beautifully kept parks.  Some, like Windsor Park next door to Fantasyland, have camping grounds on site.

SEE TWIN CITIES industry

ENJOY TWIN CITIES entertainment

You’ll find plenty to do in Hawke’s Bay night and day, winter and summer. Sporting facilities are superb, whether your game is golf, or skydiving, sailing or chess, or any of hundreds more.

Theatre is live and well in the Twin Cities, with local theatre groups frequently staging London and Broadway productions.

And don’t miss the entertainment that is distinctly Hawke’s Bay.  Try to be here for Easter and the Highland Games.

Take a summer stroll along Napier’s Marine Parade at any time of day and you’ll find it alive with organised and impromptu activity.