We were both excited to be visiting New Zealand's art deco city, Napier. How pray tell does an entire town get built in one era when these things usually grow organically over time? Blame the earthquake of 1931 which levelled most of the town. It was rebuilt in the fashion of the time, Art Deco. We once heard (and it stuck) that the easy way to remember the dates for the era is 'between the wars' - WWI AND WWII respectively. Until the crash of 1929 when things went to hell again for a lot of people, the '20s were an era of change, parties and looking forward not back. People had survived the war to end all wars (hah!) and were open to pretty much new everything. We made it off the ship in good time, relatively speaking, and met our awesome guide Clarence near the Napier soundshell well in time for our 11 am tour kick off. It was originally meant to be just us and another couple from the ship - but we ended up with some last minute Lucy type strays and had a total of 10 odd in the end. The other two from the ship however underestimated how long it would take to depart the ship (silly!), get the shuttle etc and missed the best winery almost completely - and the guide had to leave us there enjoying our tasting while he ran back into town to collect them (pictured). Now that's service. As a New Zealander I had obviously heard of the Mission Estate and their wines - but knew nothing more about it. The old building was gorgeous and we can see why it's a hugely popular wedding venue. The history of Mission Estate was fascinating. The clue is obviously in the name, but it was in fact a mission of the Catholic Church and they gathered young men from around Europe and sent them to the other side of the world to spread the word, open schools etc. They had to have skills, not necessarily English, and be handy and farming minded in order to feed themselves. The grapes were initially grown for communion wine in New Zealand - but they went on to become the first commercial winery in New Zealand in something like 1851. Can only begin to imagine what a grand adventure that must have been and what a hard life so distant from family and home. We bought a sparkling and a Rosé from Mission and part of the tour included a couple of souvenir glasses which was a nice surprise. The second winery, Askerne, was also a highlight - some interesting wines but mainly the fabulous sharing plates of cheese, nibblies and crackers out on the table. The Europeans on our tour were completely bamboozled by the concept. We called it 'lunch' and dug in to the posh Whitestone cheeses. Cheese is usually a course before or after dessert and served with bread (especially in France) - they found it very confusing indeed to be eating it as we did. What can you do? We had a ball and bought a Gewürztraminer and also a small bottle of a red dessert wine - so unusual. The final stop, Church Road, was a gorgeous property, but the only spot we didn't buy a bottle. A lot of wild yeast and unusual flavours - all a bit too character building and pricey for our wine palates. We knew we'd probably (on any other ship) have to turn in our bottles when we returned to the ship and collect them when we reached Sydney. All a bit much like hard work on the Magnifican't and we just waltzed through the boarding security check and stashed them in our cabin like everyone else. All good. Finally the dinner wines have changed to some great NZ options from the Hawkes Bay - the recent Peruvian and Chilean ones weren't great to start with and familiarity was breeding contempt. All is well on the wine front.