We have discovered this week that Hawke's Bay is full of hidden gems just waiting to be unearthed.
As part of our launch as a compact newspaper, we decided to run a series of positive stories about the treasures all around us. These gems could be people doing good things, businesses that are thriving or even areas of our cities or the countryside that no one really knows about.
Hawke's Bay is renowned for wine, fruit and vegetables and cycle trails. These must continue to be celebrated, but we are looking for people, places and ventures that fly under the radar.
They are those little stories that make you smile or the things you did not have a clue were happening. A good example of this was the story we ran in Monday's paper about the Waimarama Maori guided tours up Te Mata Peak. I am sure not many readers knew about this. I certainly did not and I live right under the Peak. The Maori cultural experience at the Hakikino Conservation Reserve - also run by Waimarama Maori - has been a success and the Te Mata Peak tour seems to have followed on from that.
Another treasure we discovered this week is on the cycle track between Havelock North and Clive, just a few hundred metres south of Black Bridge. It is a little coffee caravan called The Bivvy Cafe and it is run by Cat Kynoch. Another gem is a tiny little Central Hawke's Bay school called Elsthorpe School which produced two students who have gone on to be head boy and head girl of Havelock North High School.
