Mclean Park Lodge Motel Napier

... which we had all to ourselves!) to watch a film about the wine region and the wine merchants. We had 6 wines to try and each wine maker introduced himself and talked about their wines. It was really good and we bought the winning wine afterwards to enjoy later!

Afterwards we strolled along the marine parade, seafront and back to the town.

Hello there from Hawkes Bay! Dad is still skiing in Switzerland, and we are still hanging out on the North Island. In the last few days, we have had lots of fun with Ginny. The most exciting thing we have done is watch Ginny sky dive! She jumped out of an airplane at 15,000 feet, almost three miles high! She had a professional with her, but it still look so scary, but also fun, from the video. We got to watch her suit up and ...

... booking for next weekend, I decided to check out Bluff Hill, the lookout point in Napier. It is a easy walk up and I would say the scenery is just all right, didn't get a good view of Napier town center from there. It could be a pretty good spot to take sunrise or sunset photos though. I went back for dinner, sun cook baked cheese macaroni which just enough to keep my hunger in check for a couple of hours.

... we bought a bottle of the Mission Estate reserve C******nay (NZ$19.99 compared to the NZ$25 price tag at the vineyard). On getting back to the hotel, we had a lazy afternoon watching a film ("Forget Sarah Marshall" with RusselBrand) and a spa bath. It was raining outside by this time. We also opted to stay in in the evening for cheese and biscuits and the bottle of C******nay.

10/28/08 This morning Andy and I woke up at 5:30am. We dressed quickly, grabbed our coats, cameras and food to eat for after the sunrise and were out the door 10 minutes later. Time was of the essence this morning as we head to make it about 10 minutes outside of town to catch the sunrise shortly after 6am. We drove through a small surf community before arriving at a large hill that we intended to climb in order to get a ...

... can't be. We were able to hold a little blue penguin. He was really cute! He did a huge poo just before he was handed to us so we narrowly avoided a disaster! We met a parrot that was excellent at talking and said some really funny things. We had a lot of fun here today! Later this afternoon we walked all along the seafront to the harbour where we had a well deserved ice cream before heading back to the hostel for dinner and movie night! All in all a very good day!

... in de badkamer gelegd en Sandy had dit er (zeer begrijpelijk) uitgehaald. Alleen de lijmresten... Dus daar ging ik: mp3 aan, op de knieëen met krabber en schuurpapier: eens zien of we het eraf krijgen! Het gros is er nu af en de vloer is glad genoeg voor een verflaag, maar man, dat is niet is wat ik graag onbetaald nog eens doen zou... Langzaamaan liet Zeba me in de volgende regenachtige dagen dichter en dichterbij komen. Ze begon zelfs te kwispelen als ze me zag! Heel wat anders dus ...

... winery really gave us a "tour" of the vineyards or the processing procedures. It was just here taste this...there's the gift shop. I've been heading down to the casino in the evenings. Joe from Texas sat down at the Three Card Poker table I was sitting at. He was wearing 3 strands of Mardi Gras beads. The dealer, Christina, didn't know what Mardi Gras was and Joe explained that to her & got her to understand howw she can get his ...

... it.. Anyway the hostel is a former prison... the prison only shut in 1992 and you had a pretty decent choice of dorms etc there so i opted for me own cell.... it was so funny.. absolutly tiny too..the bed was the length of the cell complete with solid steel door and steel bars covering the little window.. Not much chance of escape. Got onto the prison tour too while i was there which was ...

... in het wild erg moelijk te spotten. Daarom
hebben ze in dit aquarium (ik weet het, landbeesten in een aquarium, vreemde vogels, die Kiwi's) voor hun de schemering nagemaakt. Vandaar dat je ook niet met flits fotograferen mag.
En ik heb ze dus gezien!! Het zijn echt een soort gemuteerde vogeltjes; geen staart, geen vleugels en een hele lange snavel! Ze zijn trouwens ook vrij groot, zeg maar zo hoog als een kleine hond! Erg bijzonder.

En ja, toen was het weer tijd om mijn ...