After a lazy day in which we did very little except eat, sleep and catch up on emails, 5 pm saw us back at Eden Park and ready to do it all over again only this time we were there to watch the All Blacks play Argentina. Whilst enjoying pre dinner drinks and canapes in the same 3rd floor lounge as yesterday we settled down to watch Australia play South Africa on one of the big TV screens. It was quite a tense game and was made more interesting because one of our ...

After breakfast we decided to go for a bit of a wander. We had a bit of shopping to collect in Broadway, Newmarket so we hopped on a red City Link bus. Unfortunately for us, this bus immediately turned a corner and took us in entirely the opposite direction from where we wanted to go! We got off at the Britomart transport centre and got on a green Inner Link bus which, quite miraculously, took us in the right direction. Those Link buses seem to be a very good ide...

After three nights in Napier we are, once again, on the move. McHardy Lodge has been a lovely vantage point to visit the area and we have very much enjoyed our stay. The very English Yvonne has been a wonderful host and the breakfasts have been fantastic! The packing didn't go quite to plan and the suitcases were looking VERY over-stuffed. Maybe all those bottles of wine had something to do with it!! After a short and easy flight we were soon back in Auckland an...

The rain came down today and it was miserable and grey and much cooler again. After breakfast we headed out in the car and drove over to Cape Kidnapper's. We understand that the world's largest mainland gannet colony is there, but we somehow didn't feel in the mood to go traipsing through the mud in the driving rain to catch a glimpse of them! We took a leisurely drive around the small towns of the area including Hastings and Havelock north. We stopped at a coup...

The weather was looking reasonably promising as we were collected at 10 am by Brigid, our driver and guide for the day, and we were soon on our way to our first tasting at Clearview, up on the coast on the way to Cape Kidnapper's Point. As we arrived it turned out that the cellar door was closed today but they were happy enough to open it just for us. We were very glad they did as the wines we tasted were all delicious. Next stop was Elephant Hill where we partic...