Sunday Jan 28th - further into wine country...

... and art deco!

Following a nice outdoor breakfast we took a drive up Kaiti hill.  No, we didn’t make it for first light but there was a light sea fog first thing that would have spoiled the views (that’s our excuse anyway!).

Views up there are amazing and we can only imagine the oh s—t! feeling the Maoris must have had when they first sighted English sails coming their way.

We really enjoyed Gisborne, here is a look over the town.

From there we drove south down to Napier. A stop in Wairoa on the way proved disappointing but on the outskirts of Napier we found our first winery - Esk Valley - and old habits die hard, we had to do a tasting. Joy! We were the only people there so we had time to sample their selection and talk wine. We were even asked if we were in the wine business!

Phillip is South African and pretty soon the Afrikaans began to flow as well as the wine.

He even unlocked the production facilities and took us to see the original square concrete fermentation tanks that they used to line with wax.  Sadly, this winery was bought some time back by Villa Maria and this is it’s last year. They are building a new $50M winery further inland.  Anyway, wine was sampled, wine was bought, and we are enjoying a very nice Chardonnay right now as I write this blog!

On into Napier and a lunch at West Quay.  They have renovated some of the original docks and warehouses as a restaurant district.

Something we didn’t know about Napier is the prominent art deco style of architecture here.  An earthquake in 1931 levelled much of the town and it was all rebuilt in the art deco style. Today it is one of the world’s finest collections of art deco structures. An evening stroll along the beachfront and through the main shop was delightful.

Tomorrow we are going to hit the vineyards and wineries with purpose!