Today we woke up to a beautiful sun rise looking out of our hostel window... I missed it as was fast asleep, having woken up every hour thinking it was morning, but Jo said it was a wonderful sight. There's always tomorrow morning.

Here we are at the end of the day, sat on the beach finishing off yet another subway (there are not very many appetising mid price range places to eat here!). The beach is stony and we learned today on our very own private wine tour that it is because four rivers come down from the mountains and merge into the sea at Napier bringing all the pebbles and sediment along with it, and the sea throws it back onto the beach. It's a rough tide here because it has a dip slightly offshore so the rip and under currents are strong... However our guide Mike said if you swim over the dip you can pretty much stand up again. A little too close to the fish for my liking!!

Speaking of fish we visited the national aquarium today and, once avoiding the French speaking school party, found Nemo! And Dory of course....
There were also sharks, turtles, stingray, tuatara (native kiwi lizards that are close to extinction) and finally Kiwis!! Hurrah!! My New Zealand holiday is almost complete!!

Following that we headed into the city centre for a quick lunch before our afternoon wine tour... Lasagne with the Napier special beef bolognaise for me and pizza for Jo. The food portions are huge here, probably think one of the entres would suffice. Then onto the beach for a quick siesta... Lovely!!

Mike, our chauffeur for the day from Prinsy's rural experience & wine tours, picked us up in his auto and we headed out to some of the wineries. The tour is catered to your taste and they will take you to the vinyards that make your tipple of choice. We didnt really have a favourite so Mike took us to the places he thought our taste would suit.
First stop Mission Estate wineries, where the missionaries first introduced wine making in the area around 1910 after they arrived in the area in 1851 from France to educate the Maori and had a basic wine production to make communion wine. Apart from them, wine making in New Zealand is relatively new after CJ Pask went to Italy and realised that good vines could be grown in the rocks where the river bed had shifted, creating an area now known as Gimblett gravel. We started on reds, you should start on White and work through to red... Four tastes, Merlot, Syrah, Pinot Noir and a dessert wine at our first stop, yum!
Next was Crossroads winery where this time we did start with the white and work through to dessert wine and port! A Riesling, Savingion Blanc pink, a Pinot Gris amongst them and a quick explanation of how long the grapes grow and what happens with a bad crop.
Next onto Ngatarawa (silent G) where we tried 8 wines! A Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, Syrah reserve, dessert wine and sherry! When we returned to the YHA, discovered in Auckland supermarket we bought a bottle of 2010 Cabernet Merlot from this winery. The year on the bottle is the year the grapes are picked.
Finally onto Moana Park where a Geordie winemaker gave us the info on 7 wines a sherry and dessert... How I'm standing still I'm not sure, was glad we chose not to cycle today! My favourite here was the Viognier and the 10 Muscat Late Harvest dessert wine.

So here we are back on the beach...

Tomorrow we will try to get to Cape Kidnappers and view the gannets, and follow the wine trail south to Wellington via southern point of north island, Cape Palliser. We treated ourselves to a mystery 4* hotel on lastminute and the big reaveal was ...... Wait for it.... A Travelodge!! Heres hoping it's different from the UK style ones!