In which we sip at the finest wines New Zealand has to offer and then drunkenly try to ride bikes.

When we arrive in Napier we spend one hell of a lot of money on the next few nights paying for board in both Napier and Wellington and then the ferry over to the south island. Still, at least all of that is out of the way now. By contrast to the last place the hostel we stay in here is lovely and run by really friendly and helpful people. Napier itself is an Art Deco town and with the sun it became very reminiscent of a summers day in Cornwall. I imagine Jake would describe it as cosmopolitan.

We rented bikes from some bloke and rode off to the first, and best winary (Mission) where we were greeted by 5 chardonnays, and I have to say it was by far the best Chardonnay I have ever tasted, not least becasue we had just rode 30 minutes into the wind and were knackered. We tried another white, 2 reds and 2 dessert wines here as well. One of the dessert wines was also amazing. Here we were taught how to taste wine correctly and what to look for. First shake the glass a bit, then smell it three times, then sip it three times to open the pallette (although my pallette is already finely tuned and it likes bacon and egg sandwhiches). The second place wasn't quite as good but also offered us free wine so we didn't complain, in fact using our knowlegde gained from the last place we looked proper distinguished like.

Wine tasting in the vineyards like pros.

Also on our tour was a chocolate shop (free chocolate) and another winary. The bloke here told us a bit more about the wine which was intresting as he was also letting us drink it. Apparantly the dryer the wine the longer it has been left to ferment, and the longer it has been left to ferment the higher the alcohol percentage. There you go, that is something we learnt. From here we bought a few bottles between us and cycled down to the next place.

In true west country boy style we ended up in a cider place where we each had 6 glasses of different ciders and ales to try, a great way to end a great day.

An even better way to end a great day is to drink the previously bought wine and then go to a couple of bars to drink bog standard larger.

Distinguished bastards!