Today was the day of our wine tour which we were really looking forward to. We weren't getting picked up til 1pm so in the morning we had a drive into Napier and I found a bag which was exactly what I needed!

Back at the site we watied outside the office and were picked up by Ferg (Ferg usually does sigtseeing tours 'Ferg's Fantastic Tours' but was taking over Vince's wine tours while Vince was on holiday in Australia). After picking up another couple (John and Joyce from Cairns) we made our way to the first winery 'Moana Park', with Ferg telling us about the area on the way. We learned all about the Earthquake in 1931 which wiped out a lot of the city (he even had photos to show us!).

At Moana Park we met Tori who took us through our first wine tasting experience! We were asked what we normally drink, to which we replied 'a bit of everything really' when what we meant was 'whatever is cheap / on offer in Asda!'. There were 4 bottles of white on the talbe and she said 'shall we start with the whites?' - yes please! We were also given a tasting guide which showed us what each was supposed to taste like, and handily, the prices! We were given a generous amount of each (a couple of inches) and she didn't make us do it properly and spit it out, but there was a bucked for us to pour away any we didn't want / like. The second wine we tasted was a 'Viogner' which is quite rarely made, especially by bigger wineries as it is hard to grow the grapes and it doesn't make very much compared to other wines, therefore it's not really available in supermarkets, only boutique wineries like this. After the whites we tried 4 reds, followed by a delicious dessert wine made from the very last and sweetest grapes of the season, and a 10-year tawny which was like a port and also delicious! Tori told us about a wine scout who visited them from Sainsbury's who was interested in trialling one of their wines. However, for Sainsbuys' to do a 2 month trial of one of the wines they would need more than what Moana Park made in a whole year! Which is why you don't see these wines in supermarkets. After the tasting we bought a bottle of the Viogner which we'd both enjoyed.

Already feeling a tad woozy, we headed to the second winery, 'Salvare' where we tried mostly the same wines. We were also given a sampel of wine Frappe which is like a slushy drink made by mixing one bottle of wine, one bottle of water and the frappe mixture. Yum! It's about to go into a supermarket so watch out! At Salvare we also got to try some olive oils and vinagarettes and were introduced to Dukkah which is a moroccan spice mix that you dip your bread into after dipping it into the oil. YUM! They also sold 'Dukkah Butter' which is a jar of the mix mixed with olive oil. We bought a jar along with the Wine Frappe mix which we will take home with us (are you ready Emma??).

The third winery was Ngatarawa which used to be a stables. We tasted some more lovely wines but decided we'd spent enough for one day! The last winery was The Mission which is the oldest winery in NZ. We didn't like it as much as it was big and busy and we were rushed through the tasting. We looked around the beautiful grounds and at a brochure with pictures of weddings that they frequently had. It would be an amazing wedding venue but I don't hink everyone would come all the way here!

With fuzzy heads, we were dropped off back at the campsite and tucked into our Dukkah Butter with crackers! We were tempted to go out for a curry but were good and stayed in eating our pasta - it was a very expensive day!