Having hung around for a bit longer than planned in Taupo, we made only a quick stop in Napier. The town is supposedly the Art Deco capital of NZ, however we were less interested in that and more in the fact that it's near Hawkes Bay, one of NZ's main wine regions.
We went on a tour of four vineyards, going for the minibus and taste as much as possible option rather than the cycle round tours... which sounded like a bad idea to me! We visited the strangely named Gimblett Gravels vineyards including Mission Estates and Ngatarawa. We managed to get in a fair amount of wine while still learning some stuff. Although NZ is famous for its white wine (80% of its exports are Sauvignon Blanc from the Malborough region) they had some good reds too. Whilst I was tucking into those, Vania was eyeing up the sweet late harvest wines! (Note from Vania: which I literaly only eyed as I wasn't allowed to buy any...)
After such a cultural afternoon, my desire for a curry kicked in again. So we managed to find a really good curry house that evening, which ended up being a BYO, which meant more wine...
After the brief stop in Napier it was on to Wellington. Although it's a nice enough city, there isn't that much to see so we didn't stay there too long. Nice cable car though! A day spent walking around, a quick trip up and down the shops and a visit to the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand was the extent of our sight seeing. The weather was far too good to be hanging around in the city and the Abel Tasman National Park was calling us...
More postings soon!
Tom
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