Napier japiers

Hello!!!

^that's a rather exuberant "hello" because I've just been on a wine tour and got myself slightly tipsy.... to begin at the beginning:

I am in Napier! Anna and I got here on Thursday night at about 8pm after a 5 hour journey on the nakedbus (which wasn't that bad because of the gorgeous scenery to look at!), rocked up to Stables Lodge, which I can highly recommend because of its incredibly friendly staff, ultra-cool dorms and kitchen with hanging rack and gas hobs!!! Be still my beating heart...

We didn't do much on Thurs night apart from cooking ourselves some tasty tomato risotto and drinking wine, then wobbling our way up some insanely high ladders into the comfiest bunkbeds ever, and falling asleep with a pleasing feeling of having begun the weekend early. (I love these bunkbeds. Mainly because they have a shelf on which to put one's hearing aids and glasses, which I now regard as essential after a good 4 weeks of worrying about how to keep said objects safe in a rickety bunkbed with gaps between mattress and bed!!)

On Saturday after a massive breakfast (I thought I was greedy when it came to breakfast, but apparently in Germany you can have omelettes, toast and honey, AND fruit and yogurt?!?!), we headed out into Napier which was beautifully sunny :D

After coffee at Groove Kitchen Espresso - which was worthy of its Rough Guide recommendation - we ambled along the seafront marvelling at the blue sky, then did the obligatory STEEP walk up Bluff Hill for some fantastic views across the bay...

and then back down into town via the Botanical Gardens. These weren't very exciting but they are Napier's oldest park, so definitely worth a look. Napier itself is beautiful and very Art Deco - it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1933, and then rebuilt in the style of the times with wide streets and beautiful buildings, and for some reason lots and lots of fountains. (I believe they symbolise rebirth.)

Alas the sun went in by about 3pm and it was getting chilly, so to get warm we had a LATE lunch at Café Divine: a fairly tasty steak sandwich on gf bread - mmm - then went back to the hostel for some chilling out time, via the supermarket and some shops! After dinner (sausages and kumara mash with apple sauce, mmm) we went for a little walk along the harbourfront to digest, then headed home for another lovely sleep.

Today (Saturday) we headed out to explore more of Napier - and get coffee. Thus fuelled, we set off on our wine tour with Vince - this was an afternoon of great fun and much wine! There were 7 of us on the tour and a great mix of ages and nationalities (Germans, Yanks, NZers, the odd Brit...) We visited 4 wineries in all;

at the first, Salvare, we had a very good tasting session and the guy was very informative about wine - I now know you should hold the glass by the stem and swirl the wine, then smell it and mutter things about aromas and bouquets. Then drink it and roll it around your mouth - NOT like mouthwash but more elegantly (this I failed at; think goldfish), and murmur things about elegance and finish and errrr mouthfeel??

I can now taste the difference between an oaked and unoaked Chardonnay - massively prefer the unoaked - and can namedrop things like Merlot and Cabernet.... I think.... planning a couple more wine tours in Nelson and Queenstown so by the end of this trip I'll be the best wine-snob ever!!

At Te Awa it was more of the same, except a bit more informal and with added banter about hot water bottles with the lady at the bar (who was also from England and also baffled by the lack of central heating in NZ).

The third vineyard had a cat :)

2 vineyards later I was flagging because I was rather hungry, and several tasting glasses on an empty stomach is not the best idea ever.... I have also learnt another interesting tidbit: when you drink wine without food, your saliva breaks down the tannins and so the wine tastes pretty bitter and dry... whereas if you're eating, your saliva is busy breaking down the protein in your food so the wine is left alone to taste awesome. Fortunately at the last vineyard a cheeseboard was provided and I fell upon it in ravenous tipsy fashion. mmmmmmm cheese.

Ooh! In Napier it is warm enough to grow lemons! It's a very Mediterranean climate here, as evidenced by the t-shirt weather (see pics of our walk above).

After this it was back to town where we decided coffee would be very useful in sobering up - then we headed back to the hostel for dinner via the supermarket. Now we're just slobbing about - Anna is reading and I am blogging. Yay for netbooks!

In other news: in Welly last week I managed to visit the WETA workshop! Unfortunately I hadn't had my coffee that day, I look a little rough....

(heehehehe)

Roz xxx