Speight’s is set back off the main West Quay drag so it’s safer for kids and the family to get to. They have a great dining area upstairs and an amazing kid’s menu . Going with a nautical theme. Try the Shark Attack - battered fresh fillets, salad & fries.

As well as having a Colour Me In children’s menu with hot items like a free Rug Rats fish bites & fries or chicken nuggets & fries they have a pretty good Junior Menu and the amazing garden bar has barbeques available for family use.

This hotel has child-friendly facilities including in-house restaurant and pool area and is excellent value and just across the road from Marine Parade’s excellent kid’s entertainment, playground, skate park, bike park and mini golf to mention a few.

This place has a creative kid’s menu to go alongside mum and dad’s whopping big plates. Just right for a growing cowboy is Barney’s Ribs sticky finger licking good and the best part the mudslide ice cream dessert is free and who doesn’t like an iconic fizzy kiwi kids spider for $2.

Relaxed bar restaurant in the centre of the village and a quick-choice kids menu. Battered fish & chips, grilled steak salad & fries, beef croquettes with fries & mayo, plain fries with sauce or a crispy twisted potato on a stick, with sauce & mayo and best for last, yummy chocolate sundae.

This fishmonger is regarded as having some of the Bay’s best fish and chips. It’s worth a drive out to the eastern coast if you don’t live near Papamoa. Grab a takeaway and get down to the Papamoa Domain, sit on the sandy beach and watch the surf roll in.

A really good fresh fish vendor who cooks their takeaways to near-perfection. The chips are pretty good too. Well-cooked, not too fatty or soggy.

Freshly caught fish is cut on site, the chips are well cooked, golden with the right amount of crunchy bits, but if you don’t like too much salt ask them to hold back on the shaker.

The amazing views up the coast to The Mount make this an amazing place to pick up some pretty good fresh fish and chips to eat them on the beach.

Fresh fish and nicely cooked and crunchy chips make this a good option for takeaways. Thursday is gluten free option night for those with dietary intolerances.

This well-known local brand now has shops in Ahuriri and Trinity Crescent, Pirimai. As well as some excellent fish and chips you can get some special Dutch treats like beef and chicken kroket croquettes, rookworst smoked sausage and frikandel minced meat dog. For the traditionally English they offer mushy peas – just the right thing to go with fish and chips. And of course good old kiwi paua and mussel gourmet fritters.

A great little family business with amazingly tasty fish and chips. They go out of their way to ensure the locally-sourced fish is perfectly cooked and the chips hot and crispy. The café is licensed or BYO and with a kiddy meal menu as well as an extensive range of seafood, plus vege, chicken and steak options. It’s good value for the family to stop off for lunch or dinner or take some good old-fashioned paper-wrapped fish and chips down to the beach.

Fish and chips for lunch, burgers for dinner. Hastings is 20km inland from the port, but Mac’s still makes sure the fish is fresh off the boats from Napier’s Port Ahuriri. Along with beautifully made fish and homemade chips there is a great variety of good old kiwi burgers – Mac’s BIG burger is full of beetroot, cheese, bacon, egg and onion rings. Mac’s is a long standing local favourite serving the best Fish and Chips in Hawke’s Bay and also stocks a good variety of fresh fish.

Ma does a nice menu for the gluten intolerant and it’s a tasty option if you still hanker deep-fried battered fish and chips. My favourite is the fish and chips of course, but there are lots of surprises like spin spuds.

Situated right across from the Waikanae Motor Camp and beach and boardwalk it’s a handy place for fish and chips as well as all-day breakfasts, lunch time fish and chips and salad, or fisherman’s basket to either dine inside, alfresco or take to the beach. There’s also a shop with good variety of fast food, cakes and very big scrummy ice creams.

Just a short walk from Pilot Bay. From a stock of 40 different flavours, four are showcased in a weekly line-up of yoghurt ice creams, smoothies and milkshakes and waffles. Ian and Pam will help you build-your-own delicacy with freshly frozen fruit, a range of delicious topping - some of which are homemade, to create the most delicious cooling mountain of creamy low fat treat. By Christmas all yoghurts will have live cultures. Try a yoghurt soda made with Aroha all natural soda.

This place is an entertainment centre just out of Whakatane for families and those that want to fill up with summer berries and they are particularly tasty crushed in the ice cream and frozen yoghurts. Mmm maybe splash out on a huge sundae. You can pick your own, eat at the café or visit the little farmyard although the ice cream is the reason why I stop here.

Perfect place to drop in for a cooling thirst quenching and award-winning gelato. It’s made fresh from the best fresh fruits, milk and cream daily. So yummy. Fruit lovers can go for the strawberry, mango or wildberry sorbet or for the absolute sweet treat try the decadent blackberry & white chocolate gelato.

The beautiful sweet aroma of hot waffle cones attracts customers for miles and with the hot spot location just across the road from the Mount hot pools it’s a popular treat. That’s an understatement. They are perfectly delicious and getting your toungue around one is an iconic part of the summer holidays..

Berry season is on us and there’s no better way to enjoy freshly picked berries than with delicious ice cream. Naturally delicious berry ice creams are just one way. Try them fresh, in smoothies, or baked in goodies.

This iconic ice creamery has been churning out ice cream since 1926. In that time they have become one of the most awarded boutique producers in New Zealand. Their latest accolade was The Supreme Award for Boutique Manufacturer at this year’s New Zealand Ice Cream Awards. It’s all natural, hand crafted, batch churned, with sun-ripened fruit, farm fresh cream and pure cane sugar and all very yummy. Of the 22 flavours there are loads of gluten-free options available, served in a tub. The products are widely available across the Bay, but part of the experience is to take the family to the site of Rush Munroe’s since 1931, the iconic Ice Cream Gardens in Hastings.

Situated along picturesque Marine Parade appropriately-named ‘Lick This’ is a not to be missed lick-a-thon, but it’s not the place to down-size, with some stunning choices like big four-flavour waffles filled with ice cream, gigantic banana splits and delicious ice cream cakes. Using local ingredients where possible most of the ice cream, gelato, sorbet and frozen yoghurt products are made on site and there are 35 flavours to suit from. Latest on the list are completely natural Popsicles, or as they say in Kiwiland – ice Blocks. Try Forest Berry – the bottom half is mango and the top is passion fruit.

Layers of gelato, crushed base, and strawberry sauce cream cheese cake, Damson Plum and Rose or salted caramel gelato with white chocolate and home made marshmallows. It’s so hard to resist these mouth-watering flavours all artisan made with lots of local produce from Hawke’s Bay orchards.

If you want to impress the kids with a tasty inexpensive treat, especially after a long hot day on Waikanae Beach this is the place to do it. Massively big licking delicious ice creams and a view to die for. Their consistent delivery of these massive cones have earned them a great reputation.

The delicious smell of the waffle cones cooking is enough to have me pop in here. The cart is right by the kid’s playground on Marine Parade and too tempting. Pick a flavour and top it off with a sweet topping and cream. Just the treat.

If you are serious about getting fit the $130 4-5-week boot camp will do just that. Run by ex-military cross fitters they’ll motivate your inner athlete to get into all the running drills, plyometrics, callisthenics, along with burden carries, intervals and battle games. All you need is a good attitude and tons of will power to sweat it out.

Tired of being grounded. Here’s a cool way to do yoga – in the air. Elevate Studios take fitness to new heights, classes in aerial yoga, pole-fit, cirque, and are available for events showing off their aerial silk technique, burlesque and acrobatic pole. Aerial yoga I just have to try.

Fancy marching to the beat. It’s social, technical, funky and fun and a novel way to stay fit. Hawke’s Bay is the home of marching champions.

If you like to be fit and love a bit of rough and tumble at speed this is a sport for you. And if you aim high you might reach the Bay City Rollers league. Junior Derby’s, Little leagues, school holiday boot camps and adult beginners are good ways to start.

A smart way to train across multiple disciplines. This is a one stop shop for group fitness, boxing, kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and martial arts. Try the 21 day lunchtime challenge.