Gardner Court Motel Napier

... all exceptional (Vivien knows this as one of them is the house wine in Hakkasan apparently). The reds were the business and the gift of the rest of the fresh bottle of Pinot Gris was splendid.

2008 Sauvignon Blanc - Herbs and grass. Lovely soft acidity and more herbs on the palette.

2009 Pinot Gris - V. pale (very young - only in the bottle for nine days!), beautiful soft pears following through ...

... we (me, Josephine, chris, alice) walk the cape kidnappers which I have done previously but this time things got interesting. We were stuck at the last part approaching the footpath the peak due to the high tide. Water are at my waist level and the wave are pretty strong. We decided to press forward against the odd, scaling rocks 2.5m high, walking on the edge of cliff with big rock below, walking in the ice cold water ...

... for me which I was not told about....haha...the result, a big red bum. I was partnering this lady and we rush for the same shot and the racquet just came straight down. By the way, regarding the book I read, something worth giving a thought to about happiness. Which do you want to be, a person who is happy when you get what you want or a happy person who gets what you want? A simple question digging into the deep of life.

... where 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 ........) 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.

... down some rapids, including a drop over a waterfall; · Canyon swinging: "the world's highest rope swing" at 109 metres; · Black water rafting: white water rafting through dark caves...thanks for the helmets! Of course the above activities are in addition to the extreme activities that I have actually heard of, such as skydiving, jet boating (through waterfalls), and all kinds of freefall/bungee jump derivatives. These activities abound in New ...

As we had come to the end of our time on the South Island, the weather had continued to deteriorate and, unfortunately, did not improve on the ferry crossing a large part of which was in thick fog. This crossing is described in the guide books as one of the great ferry journeys of the world and the scenery is apparently spectacular, sadly, we couldn't see a thing. Arriving in the capital Wellington, we drove out of the city to Palmerston where we stayed ...

... wine tasting. However, everywhere we went to was either fully booked or had a wedding on or some other excuse, so we ended up going to a pub in Havelock North for some food. I did have a glass of wine to make up for missing the wine tasting! In the evening we had tickets to see Jack Johnson at Church Road Winery. We're getting the hang of these outdoor concerts now. Everyone is very civilised, and either have picnic blankets or foldaway chairs. Those with the chairs ...

... In 1931 the town was destroyed by an earthquake and when they rebuilt the town the majority of buildings were built in the Art Deco style. So every year they dress up and have lots of celebrations to mark the occasion. We then went on tour to a couple of winery's driving through lots of orchards and vineyards. The scenery was remarkable. The wine wasn't too bad but not quite to our taste very young and tannic.

We were supposed to go mountain biking and horse riding this morning, but our arm muscles were strained from pulling ourselves up on the rope course the day before, and we were tired from all the early morning starts that we decided to skip this activity. One for the next time maybe. After checking out and having a quick wander around town, we stopped at the lake to get some ...

... in their stride. Apparently there was also an earthquake just as our ferry left but we didn't notice anything.

This time I made sure I didn't miss any of the spectacular Marlborough Sounds scenery, especially as the boat squeezed out of the narrow channel leading into the Cook Strait. Wellington is famed for being windy and our crossing was no exception - our new powerboat knowledge made us take a great interest in the tying-up procedure and the ...