Visitors to Bay enjoy the sights ... and tastes

American and Canadian members of Friendship Force and their local hosts take time out from a cycling scenic ride for a Kiwi pub lunch at Puketapu. Photo / Duncan Brown

For the Hawke's Bay hosts of a group of 16 visiting Americans and Canadians there was no doubt about what Tuesday night's dinner arrangements at Westshore should be.

"Fish and chips on the beach," Ross Stevens of the Napier Friendship Force group said.

"Great old Kiwi tradition and they loved it - especially the fish which they thought was just delicious."

The visitors had also enjoyed a spirited tractor and trailer journey out to Cape Kidnappers and a climb up the cliff steps to see the nesting gannets, Art Deco experiences, a winery tour, the Shine Falls, Lake Tutira for a lakeside snack, White Pine Bush and a cycling day which took in the trails of Awatoto through to Puketapu (for a fine Kiwi nosh-up at the pub) and back to Napier.

"This is an adventure group," Mr Stevens said.

"There's an 80-year-old in there amongst them but they are very fit people and love to get out and look about - and they have loved being in Hawke's Bay."

The youngest member of the group was 62.

There are about 600 Friendship Force clubs across about 60 countries, and members of the Napier club had been hosting their American and Canadian guests
over the past week. The Bay's scenery, fine foods and wines and equally fine weather had left them smiling.

The group had arrived in the country on February 21 and had so far been to Auckland, Rotorua, Taupo, Hobbiton village and arrived in Napier last Sunday.

"We hosted them for dinner at home that night and served up some hokey pokey icecream - they just went 'wow!' " Mr Stevens said with a smile.

He said Friendship Force International, which was started in the US in 1977, was all about fostering and developing international friendships and meeting people from all over the world.

The local club hosts visiting groups while overseas clubs will host them when they travel, which several will do next year to Japan and Indonesia.

The latest tour group, which was set to head off for a few days in the Wairarapa on Thursday, has added to groups from Japan, Brazil, Europe and Australia who have also enjoyed the "Hawke's Bay touch" to their Kiwi visits.

"Everyone loves to travel and everyone loves to meet people," Mr Stevens said.

One couple they had hosted had previously travelled the world for 10 years - on their small yacht.

But nothing came close to enjoying the Kiwi tradition that spans generations - fish and chips on the beach.

"They'll always remember that," Mr Stevens said.