Lisa Rose Motel Napier

... 21 months. Lovely rich cassis nose with cedar wood finish. More rich fruit on the palette with firm tannins and great acidity. Another exceptional wine.

Last night in Napier so a trip to the bar was in order. Mad. I've been here for three days and knew both people in the bar! A couple of beers and a great time watching and participating in the usual Friday post work beer ritual. Funniest comment was when ...

... help will be 2 hours away by foot. No room for error and we decided to turn back to the peak, on the way back I could sense Josephine fear for height as I supported her along the edge. Pale face and jelly legs.....haha!! In case you wondering what the danger is, we are about 2.5m from jugged rocks below and hungry strong waves trying to suck you out to the sea and our footpath is full of loose sands and rocks, we got a ...

... to sleep packed up and left the dorm. Had a tea, read and waited for the bus up to Napier. The journey was nice - though did miss quite a bit as I kept dozing!! Terry the driver is a real character and with a small number of people it is fun. Stopped at Mt Bruce and the wildlife centre that they have there. Walked through the bird enclosures - couldn't find some of them. The positive was that they were relatively large enclosures with lots of greenery ...

... just enjoying New Zealand's great outdoors, which pleasantly enough, do not appear to have any mosquitoes (at least so far). It's an outdoor lover's paradise, with well marked hikes in every town. The treks can range anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 or 5 days in length, and hiking (or in "Kiwi speak", tramping) is a very popular pastime. We've been on a number of shorter hikes, and in our travels we have come across the following: · Aratiatia ...

... view big cities). So, I also tried not to care about... ;-) What we did today was kind of like the winery bus tours also provide: Driving to several wineries and at every place tasting about 4 white and 4 red wines. Except for we were able to decide by ourselves where we go when, how long we stay at every place, and finally also where we eat. But on the other hand: I don't know much about the region, and she also didn't do something like this before ...

... doesn't appear to be a "natural " route to cover the sights of the island so after getting yet another leak in the van fixed, we head off in yet more rain in the vague direction of Napier on the West side, but starting along the eastern road. The rain is getting heavier so we decide to stop overnight at a DOC campsite at Otaki Forks as we cross country. Having wised up to the fact that some of these sites are very muddy and that it is easy to get ...

... Between Dreams album. When we got back to the UK in 2005, we tried to get tickets for his tour in the UK but missed out, so this time we were on Ticketmaster at the first available moment to buy tickets. Good thing too as the Napier gig was sold out. We also played one of his songs, Better Together at our wedding whilst we were signing the register. Anyway, he didn't disappoint us as the gig was really good, and the support act Matt Costa was pretty decent as well ...

... Daniel and I went into town, saw the old cars, visited the sealife centre and the possom shop. There was some really cool rollerblading going on so we watched that for awhile. A 1930's bandstand was set up so the town had a really good atmosphere. We climbed up the sugar loaf which is a hill that looks over the town. We joined his Dad and Julie at the boat club for a drink then we all headed home for a BBQ. Sunday 17th February 2008 ...

... size and clean. In the evening, I'd booked a meal at Take Five restaurant on Marine Parade as my friends Jill & Paul have raved about the food here often. All its food is organic, and it was very tasty, however I'd ordered a medium steak and that came well done, so I wasn't that impressed. For really good steak go to Steak Out Grill, also on Marine Parade, as we did the ...

... had two medevacs and so had only just go t in, most of the boats were out of the water with masts down, huge components everywhere and a lot of frantic sewing going on in the sail loft. Boat 45 (previously 'Logica') is now a smart bright red and renamed 'BG Group' so that's the one we hope to see sailing into Sydney in a couple of weeks.

We spent a night of luxury at one of our favourite hostels, Moana Lodge by the sea just north of Wellington, and ...