We have been lucky weather wise today, a lot of NZ has had gales and rain due to a tropical storm moving in but here in Napier it has held off so whilst its not been that sunny it has been warm and dry which is more than you can say for the UK in Marcgh. This morning Fiona went on a guided walk of Napier, I was allowed to bunk off and sit by the shore line and read my book, so we both enjoyed ourselves in different ways. Napier was flattened by a huge earthquake in 1931 which was quickly followed by a fire as the gas mains ruptured and as the water mains went as well the fire service were scuppered. The town decided to rebuild everything in the art deco style and this was largely done in under 2 years. It does look nice but if have you seen one building then you've seen them all. We had driven down to the town as we didn't want to get hot and sweaty by walking back up after Fiona's tour. Parking is easy to find but as the town is built in squares there are traffic lights galore. We were collected for our wine tour just after 12.30, went to just 3 wineries, the last one was the best, I managed to be sensible so didn't immediately fall asleep afterwards. (I have history!).

Where we are staying is the old summer lodge retreat for a Scottish born sheep baron, huge rooms, 12 feet high ceilings, it has in its time been the local hospital and maternity hospital before becoming an old people's home before running into disrepair. It was rescued and restored in the 1990's, it only has 6 guest rooms, the other guests are all Americans. I was tempted to introduce myself as "my name's Donald, just like that of your great new president", 2 lies in one sentence.

We drove down to Napier centre in the evening as it was pouring with rain, started about 18.00. Just shows how sensible I had been on the wine tour that I was OK to drive, also a reflection that of all the wine tours we have done this one ranks last. We are hoping for better in Marlborough where we are staying within stumbling distance of at least 2 good wineries. We went to an Indian restaurant, excellent meal, we had been told it was huge portions so we ordered a starter and a mains to share. It was only because Fiona couldn't stop eating it that it was all finished, she may regret that later, come to that I might be regretting it as well.

We drive to Wellington in the morning, 300km, probably take about 4-5 hours. Have already filled up the car, petrol is $1.86 here whilst diesel is only $1.19, a huge difference. Napier has been nice, a quiet, refined place and definitely a slower pace to life than Auckland although we have been told that on South Island the pace is even slower.

In Wellington we are due to go on some sort of wildlife walk with the chance to see kiwi birds. We did see one in the Maori park we went to see the geyser in, they have 2 birds, a male and female who are both 2. Apparently make kiwis are sexually mature at 2 but females only at 3 so they have had to separate them for now until the female is ready, as the egg is so large if she laid one at 2 it would probably kill her.