Tuesday December 23, 2008 - Napier

This morning we awoke to 19 degree temperature with a partially cloudy sky. Barb went for a wonderful run along the seawall starting across from our hotel. At first she decided to run to the end of the seawall and then learned that it went all the way to Hastings – 20Km away, so turned back at an appropriate time.
This afternoon we were scheduled for a wine tour, so spent the morning doing a bit of Christmas shopping, then headed back to our room for a light lunch.
The wine tour started about 1 PM. We were picked up from our hotel by our guide Vince from World of Wine and taken to the information centre where we met the rest of the group – we were about 18 in all. We drove out into the country where we were again impressed by the similarity to the Okanagan Valley.
Our first stop was at Moana Park Winery where – as you can see we tested 9 different wines – all very nice but none worth a purchase. They have learned to avoid the use of any animal products, which we learned are usually used to remove unwanted flavours and chemicals.
Our second stop was a small winery the Salvare Estate Winery. This was started by man who made his initial fortune in the Tech world, then decided that this would kill him, so his salvation was to open the winery. His wife is working on her degree in Wine Making. Here we where greeted by a very friendly dog, and where we sampled some very nice light wines, but also some lovely olive oil and Dukkah which is a combination of sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, paprika, salt and turmeric – lovely. The wine was forgettable, but the Dukkah and the Olive Oil fabulous – hence the purchase. The idea is that you dip bread into Olive Oil and then into the Dukkah. Yummy!
Our third stop was Ngatarawa & Farmgate Winery. This is a winery that has been established in what was originally an award winning stable. It has been a winery since the late 80’s. The wine here was very nice, we had several varieties, and were fed cheese and crackers (much appreciated at this point).
The fourth stop was the Hatton Estate Vineyard and Winery. Here we were given a very good lesson on wine tasting by a very enthusiastic vintner. It was lots of fun, but some of our group had to get back to their ship so our stay was cut a bit short.
After saying good bye to the members of the cruise, we went on to our fifth stop, the Matariki Wines. Here we tasted what we figured to be the best wine of the day (maybe we had just had too much by now) but it was really good, and this will be our wine for the balance of our trip. Perhaps we will keep some for a certain celebration on January 4th. This picture is that of our Guide Vince on the left and the host at the Matariki wines
Back to the hotel by about 6 – we were ready for a very simple meal in our hotel. All in all a really fun day – but early up tomorrow for our trip to Wellington.