Discover Fernhill: wine and cycling trails

Fernhill offers several highlights for a stay: challenging cycling through remote hill country, a wine route with riverside sections, and wineries with gardens and tastings. This selection gives you a concrete sense of what makes the place distinctive. At the same time, it is worth distinguishing Fernhill as a destination from the wider range of options in the broader destination of Hastings District.

Cycling between hill country and river

The Gentle Annie runs between Taihape on State Highway 1 and Fernhill in Hawke’s Bay, passing through remote hill country. It is challenging but rewarding. Another cycling option is a section of the Hawke’s Bay Trails Wineries Ride, which follows the right bank of the Ngaruroro from Fernhill to the Waitangi Estuary. The two routes offer different experiences: the Gentle Annie focuses on hill country, while the Wineries Ride features riverbanks and wineries.

The longer Wineries Ride option passes through open riverside stretches to Fernhill and is about 33 kilometres long; from Clive, the route is about 60 kilometres. Roys Hill is another starting point near Fernhill. These details help you compare the different route lengths without combining them into a single loop. Check current route conditions before cycling.

Wineries, gardens and cellar doors

Trinity Hill combines an architecturally designed winery with extensive gardens where visitors can linger over a glass of award-winning wine. Swift Wines offers tastings, and visitors can also put together their own snack platter from the deli fridge. Contact the operator to check the current tasting arrangements at Swift Wines.

Ten cellar doors are located along the Hawke’s Bay Trails Wineries Ride. Many offer food and non-alcoholic drinks as well as wine. The longer route option extends to Fernhill; the ten cellar doors are spread along the ride. This lets you choose between visiting a single winery and taking a longer ride with several stops, without attributing the entire route’s offering to Fernhill.

More to explore in Hastings District

In the broader destination of Hastings District, the Heritage Trails from Hastings lead to cultural, historical and scenic highlights. As of May 2026, the trails are open year-round, free to access and available without booking. The Hawke’s Bay Trails also provide a regional cycling context: they are among New Zealand’s 23 Great Rides and comprise 200 kilometres of easy-to-ride cycling trails through Hastings District and Napier. Visitors can drive up Te Mata Peak Road to the summit of Te Mata Peak.

Gardens and natural attractions also add to the range of experiences in Hastings District. The Osmanthus Garden in Cornwall Park is designed in the traditional Chinese style; its features include a large pond, pavilions, the Friendship Bridge and the Crooked Bridge, as well as bamboo and fragrant osmanthus plants. Frimley Park is a reserve in the style of an English landscape park, with more than 5,500 roses in formal gardens. Its playground includes, among other things, bongo drums, talking tubes, a wheelchair-accessible carousel, swings, slides, a climbing rope structure and a scooter track. Guthrie-Smith Arboretum is a collection featuring many plant species and a refuge for birds and native wildlife.

Choose the right travel base

When deciding where to stay, it helps to keep the two scales distinct: Fernhill is associated here with cycling routes and wineries; the trails, gardens, parks and natural attractions mentioned belong to the broader Hastings District. If you are looking for a holiday rental, consider whether Fernhill itself suits your focus on wine and cycling, or whether your plans are more shaped by the other destinations in Hastings District.

Discover more destinations

Havelock North, Elsthorpe, Urewera National Park, Haumoana, Takapau, Waipukurau, Bridge Pa, Puketapu

For the broader travel overview: Hawkes Bay.