12th-14th April 2009: Napier and Hawke's Bay

The next stop on our trip up the east coast was Napier and the Hawke's Bay region. Home to some of New Zealand's best known wineries, this has been on our must-do list since we got here.

Napier was largely destroyed by an earthquake and subsequent fire in 1931. The rebuild happened over the next few years, in contemporary style, and as a result the city now has an amazing collection of art deco buildings - one of the best in the world. The art deco society organises good tours of the town; our guide's mother-in-law had experienced the original earthquake.

Having made a nod to culture, we proceeded to the main business of the day: wineries. I heroically offered to drive everyone else around for the day, as the wineries are too far apart for cycling.

We started at Te Mata, then made it to Craggy Range where we promptly got side-tracked by lunch for three hours. By the time that was over, we barely had time to race around Trinity Hill and Salvare Estate before they all closed for the day. The lunch was worth it though: great food under the steep cliffs of Te Mata peak, with the trees in their glorious autumnal colours.

Wine making at Sileni: old and new technology combined

We finished off our visit to the region with a tour of Sileni Estates winery the next morning. They do an interesting 30-minute trip around the winery, which processes a lot of NZ's olive oil as well as its own wine. The large vats of fermenting merlot grapes gave off a heady scent: we had to restrain Sophie from diving in.