Colonial Lodge Motel Napier

... sweet chilli sauce

Potato, risotto & goats cheese panko crumbled croquettes with saffron aioli, micro green salad & fried sage leaves

C******nay Tasting flight - Te Awa Windmill C******nay 2006, Te Awa C******nay 2005, Te Awa Leftfield C******nay 2007

Brookfields - Talk about save the best for last. This was a great small producer where I had a great tasting with John. The wines ...

... we went up to a lookout at a mountain called Te Mata peak at 4.30am, we wanted to catch the sunrise, not only we couldn't see the sun due to the thick clouds and we were treated with strong freezing cold wind. Can you imagine the wind is that strong that our car shook....haha!! Josephine was kind of disappointed because she want to trek up there and in the end we drove up to the lookout. Here is the interesting part, I ...

... there and for the moment you see them, 'Are you kidding' immediately sprang up. Really big guys with the look of someone holding knife than racquet, thought to myself. I will grab some picture the next visit. These people are real friendly, a few of good players but their level I would say can be overcome by some primary school badminton team in Singapore. I was hit on the forehead on my first visit, some sort of ...

... both went for their reserve C******nay, which we thought was excellent. Starting to feel the effects of the wine, we decided we should eat here and had an excellent meal. It was an overcast day and not too hot but warm enough to sit outside to eat. Steve had had another glass of wine with his meal so Jayne drove in the afternoon and we returned to our hotel via a ...

... at 130 kph, all the while yelling in terror, "I'm going to geyser myself!"; · Schweebing: some sort of human powered monorail racetrack with fast speeds and sharp curves; · Body flying: you are placed above a DC3 aircraft engine (that's facing the ground) and the 180km/hr "exhaust" wind column causes you to float above it; · Blokarting: sand yachting (also referred to as the "fastest deck chairs in the south"); · River sledging: taking a boogie ...

... and asked for her address where we'd be meeting her. They couriered the cell phone to Rotarua, where we'd be arriving that night. By the next day, we had the phone! No chance in LA that 1) someone would go to the trouble of dropping a lost phone off at the tourist office, 2) texting someone on the phone to let the friend know, and 3) the tourist office over-nighting the phone to another city at their own cost. What a nice group of folks! Next stop: Rotorua...

... of Friday was fairly uneventful. We had something to eat at Breakers, as all the supermarkets were shut so we couldn't buy anything. We then wandered back to the hostel for an early night. Saturday we wandered back into the city centre to buy some books, for me to take to the cricket on Sunday. In the afternoon we met up with Pete and Claire, who happened to be in Napier for Easter as well. Claire's family is from Napier. We aimed to go to a winery to have some lunch ...

Napier - 16th February 2008. Arrived in Napier about 12:45 and what a fantastic welcome we received from the locals. An air display by a couple of five ship formations and a flyby from a Catalina, superb, just the tick for our Dennis. When we disembarked some 300 vintage cars greeted us and all their passengers were dressed up in 1930s costumes. Apparently we arrived on the day of their Art Deco celebration ...

... here in 1931 that knocked over the city and it was rebuilt in Art Deco. There are numerous pretty parks and gardens. We enjoyed visiting several of them and also going to the overlook. We enjoyed eating dinner at a Thai restaurant near the visitor information center on Marine Parade. They did a wonderful Massuman curry and basil prawn stir fry. The evening was spent in the nice big spa tub.

And so the time came to roll the Bluesmobile on to the ferry and head north. Our last two nights on the south island were spent in sleepy Picton, at a hostel called the Juggler's Rest: we did have some lessons but it needs practice. The ferry crossing began with some NZ wackiness as we followed a pickup truck with three sheep strapped on the back; we can only assume they were off to join the Wellington anniversary day celebrations, they seemed to take the city ...