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.

10th-12th April 2009: Martinborough

Having scooped my prospective parents-in-law off the ferry, we set off to conquer the wine regions of the North Island. We started at Martinborough, north-east of Wellington, and stayed in the charming and comfortable Martinborough Hotel.

Martinborough is unusual in that most of the wineries are small and close together. This makes cycling an ideal way to get around them, allowing for a long day of tasting and a wobble home afterwards. Luckily for our livers (and the drivers of Martinborough) we were only able to get bikes for the morning.

Ian, making good use of the bike's drink holder

We visited Martinborough Vineyard, Winslow Wines, Ata Rangi, and Benfield & Delamere. Winslow was the most memorable, both for its excellent wines and the interesting but long-winded discourse from the owner on matching wines to food; it took an hour and a half to taste four wines. Ata Rangi is the source of the delicious Pinot Noir given to Tim by Nishan, but we weren't allowed to taste it that day.

We finished up with a late lunch at the Alana winery. Winery restaurants always seem to have good food and great settings. By the end of lunch we were fit for nothing more than a snooze before dinner.

The next day we set out for Hawkes Bay, but stopped on the way for a short walk in Holdsworth. We battled up a steep track to a viewpoint with great views of Mount Holdsworth and the surrounding hills. By all accounts the walking at the south end of the North Island is great - shame it's such a long drive from Auckland.

22nd - 24th December 2008: Marlborough region

From Kaikoura we headed for Marlborough Sounds, spending a couple of nights in the DOC Cowshed Bay campsite. Before we got to the Marlborough wine region we'd already seen at least a dozen vineyards, with many more to come. We stopped at the Montana Brancott winery to taste and buy a Pinot Noir for dinner.

The drive from Picton to Cowshed Bay was a little longer than we'd bargained for - almost two hours of bendy roads punctuated by one 5-minute stretch that was more or less straight. It was worth it though. We slept between Queen Charlotte and Kenepuru Sounds - the former bright blue, the latter equally intense but a bit more greeny - surrounded by lush forest and right by the beach.

The following morning we slept in - our only lie-in of the holiday, as it turned out - then went for an amble on part of the Queen Charlotte Track. The views over both sounds in the sunshine were spectacular and compete for my best view of the holiday.

Having lunch at Black Rock shelter, we met a group doing the Queen Charlotte as a guided walk. Day 3 of the walk is reputedly tough so they were delighted when we told them they were only an hour and a half from their hotel. We met them later eating a slap-up meal in the Portage Resort restaurant - the difference being that while they returned to their en-suite rooms, we had a 10-minute walk to our luxury site ($12 for the night).

Christmas Eve dawned rainy, with no sign of let-up. After some indecision, and helped by the sales skills of the amusing Frenchman hiring kayaks, we took a double kayak for a paddle in Kenepuru Sound. After some leisurely exploration around the mussel farms, we decided the wind had got up and we'd better head for home. Coming round the lee of a point we saw the most obvious wind line imaginable - glassy calm water where we were, chop and white horses a few metres off. Sadly we had to paddle upwind through it to get back. We felt we had earned our lunch though, unlike most of the bored couples in the cafe waiting for the rain to stop.

From there we headed back to Bleinheim, where we were booked at Herzog winery for dinner. Our first shower in four days, at Watson's Way Backpackers, was very welcome and we felt quite presentable afterwards. As soon as we got to the restaurant, however, it became apparent that we were woefully underdressed in jeans and flip-flops. Still the service was impeccable and nobody batted an eyelid. We had a fabulous five-course tasting dinner, each course with its own wine, which cost nearly as much as our week's campervan hire. A fine flashpacking moment.

21st September 2008: Sky Tower and Te Whau winery

Popped up the Sky Tower with John M, as it was a clear day. Good views of the harbour. Not more stunning than we have already seen from the tops of hills, though. Maybe views seem better if you've earned them by climbing.

Had lunch at Te Whau vineyard on Waiheke for Sophie R's birthday, along with Claire and Graham. Their wine, The Point, was lovely, but the lunch surpassed it. Definitely the best meal we have had in NZ so far, and pretty well-priced. We will be back with parents, on birthdays, or any time I need to have that crab salad again.

The meal was accompanied by fantastic sunny views from the restaurant balcony over the Waiheke hills, vineyard, the harbour, and some alpacas in a nearby field. John was a particular fan of these, and wants to become an alpaca farmer.

23rd-24th August 2008: Matakana region

Forecast was for rain and more rain, so we had a driving and sightseeing weekend north from Auckland with Kate Moses.

Whangaparaoa Regional Park - pretty. Moist. Reasonable waterfall and a pleasant amble. Saw a sheep giving birth and later saw her with the new lamb.

Waiwera thermal pools were good - natural hot swimming pools ranging from 31 to 48C, and some good water slides to keep Tim amused. Slightly funny place - was definitely in need of doing up. Even just surfacing the ground with something less pointy than tarmac would have been good. Very chilled out by the time we had spent a couple of hours there.

Stayed the night in Warkworth at Walton Park Motor Lodge. Two-bedroom unit for Kate and us was affordable and comfortable. Not stylish but we weren't expecting that. Enjoyed a good beer selection and knowledgeable landlord in a bar called Tahi, followed by tasty Thai dinner.

Started this morning with coffee in Matakana and looked round some crafty shops in the village (Sophie narrowly avoiding spending many dollars on cool jewellery). Back to Tahi to pick up my phone which had, er, wandered, then off to Ascension winery to taste and buy some delicious things. Tim enjoyed the Old Tawny (can't call it port because it's not from Portugal) but resisted buying any. Ascension have a concert in Feb which Kate wants to go back to.

Headed south to Puhoi, via the Honey Centre which had, well, some bees and some honey. Puhoi is an interesting historic village founded by Bohemians, with some pretty houses and well-preserved buildings like the general store and local school. Museum was interesting and attended by a knowledgeable and chatty local lady who gave us a personal tour.

Finished up with a brief visit to the Puhoi Art of Cheese Cafe. Sadly it was closing but we brought home a selection to try.

Home via a serious downpour, with Sophie struggling to see the road markings at times. We really appreciated being able to go from car to flat without leaving the building :)