Napier - New Zealand

7^th March – Napier

Napier is a seaside town on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island.  It is New Zealand’s oldest wine growing region and following an earthquake in 1931 was rebuilt in the Art Deco style. 

Today we only had half a day here and we chose to do an excursion entitled Hawkes Bay Wine and Scenery.  This involved a visit to three wineries, namely Ngatarawa, The Mission Estate and the Sileni Estate.  At the start of our excursion we drove through the town viewing the beautiful art deco buildings.  

At 9.00am we were at the Ngatarawa Winery tasting our first glass of wine, four wines later we were offered a local speciality ice cream to clear the palate, before we moved on to the next winery….. hic

The Mission Estate was housed in an elegantly restored building with sweeping views over Napier.  Here we sampled a further five wines.  The most interesting being the sweet desert wine Semillon….. hic, hic

Finally we visited the Sileni Estate where they produced superb Bordeaux varieties including Merlot and Cabernet and Semillon.  Here we sampled four more wines accompanied by a variety of cheeses…. Hic, hic, hic

After a very pleasant morning we all returned to the ship merrily, viewing more of the beautiful town and its Hawkes Bay coastal resort, arriving late back at the ship for its scheduled 12.30 departure.