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Published: November 10th 2008
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When we got up at 6am I gave the shuttle company a call to find out the latest weather report; it wasn’t good. The up to date report said there would be rain showers that could turn heavy. The guy on the phone didn’t sound optimistic. We decided that it wasn’t worth paying $40 each for the shuttle, plus paying for hire of waterproofs, hiking boots and everything else if in an hour or two we’d be turned back. We decided to get back in bed and change our plans for the day.
We decided to use our spare day to go to Napier, the Hawkes Bay wine region. We’d wanted to go there all along but had run out of time so had cut it out of our itinerary. I called the i site in the area to suss out the wine tasting trips and found out that most left around 1pm. We got straight on the road and two and a half hours later arrived in the art deco city.
On our way to the i site in the town centre we looked at the 1930s houses that lined the streets - the town was flattened by
an earthquake and then had to be rebuilt. As it was the 1930s art deco was all the rage so everything was rebuilt in the current fashion. It looked like a really pretty town - it’s a shame that we didn’t have much time to explore. When we arrived at the i site there was only one person serving and we didn’t get to the front of the queue until 1pm so we thought there was no chance of getting on a tour as we still had to drop our van off at a nearby campsite. Luckily the lady there called one of the tours up and they agreed to wait for us at the campsite down the road so we got a move on and met the mini bus twenty minutes later.
We felt guilty for delaying the trip and we were reminded of our lateness by the tour guid/driver regularly which made us feel even more guilty (and a bit annoyed). There was only a small group; just three sisters on a girlie break and the two of us. We went to five vineyards in total and tried probably six different wines in each (maybe the equivalent
to one glass in each). We started with a small vineyard where the owner talked us through the wines on offer. At Church Road (which we can get back home) we got a platter of food which was tasty but wasn’t really a replacement for lunch which we’d missed in the rush. It was a bigger affair and a big coach full of Aussie tourists were there at the same time which made us all appreciate being in a smaller group. We much preferred the smaller boutique vineyards where it was mostly just us and the person who ran the place. We bought a few bottles but it was difficult; the more we drank, the more we lots our ability to taste it properly.
By the last winery we were all completely drunk. Matt commented to the driver that his job really must seem like being a glorified Saturday night taxi driver. I can’t imagine how we’d have coped on a full days tasting trip!
We all ended up giggling on the journey back about how funny the words ‘snore’ and ‘team’ were in Dutch. I can’t for the life of me remember what the words are now
(or why we were talking about them!) but snore was something like ‘snerglly’ which at the time felt like the funniest word ever.
It was a really good day and I’m sure it was probably more fun than we’d have had doing the crossing although I wouldn‘t tell Matt that as he was still gutted we missed out on the walk.
When we got back to the van I tried to sober up. We’d completely run out of clothes and had to do some washing so I tried to put my sensible head on and get some done. I’m sure I was wobbling all over the place as I walked to the laundry room and I was very glad there was nobody in there to see me struggling to figure out the washing machines in my drunken state.
As we’d already spent lots of money on the trip and the wines, I refused to let Matt have a take away and decided to cook a chilli con carne instead. I took a chunk out of my thumb with the knife as I chopped the onion but apart from that I think I did a pretty decent job
while Matt struggled to make the bed (he somehow ended up underneath the sheet instead of on top of it!)
I was passed out snurggling by 9pm and Matt wasn’t far behind.
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