Best day of my life. Seriously.

March 12th – Ok, ok, I know that my wedding day and/or birth of my children should take this title but it was seriously the most awesome day ever. A day filled with wine and food! There are more pages to this day in my journal than to any other. This is gonna be a long one folks!

The hubby and I started off the day with a quick trek downtown so that he could see a little of the city on foot. Plus, in all the shopping from the day before I never found an “art deco” dress for myself. Don’t worry, I found loads of other fun things. Just not the dress. Knowing that I hadn’t been to all the shops I wasn’t worried. The hubby was worried.

Lo and behold! No need to worry. I found the the dress of all dresses. Sequins, gold and of course tassels. I was so pumped. Got some long gold gloves to match with a few new fascinators and some art deco jewelry. I was now ready to hit the town in style. I love this place. I seriously need to live in Napier.

We had to get back by noon to get on the road to wine country. My hubby was nominated DD. He doesn’t really drink so really it was a no brainer. Married to me you would think he’d be a raging alcoholic but no. One of us has to be responsible. Think of the children!

Speaking of the children, we decided to drag them along to a couple of the vineyards. The plan was to drop them off after a couple so they wouldn’t have to suffer all day. Just part of it. We are amazing parents. Mom of the year here.

First stop – Mission Estate Winery. Oldest in NZ. Some cool history to the place. (In case you haven’t noticed, I have been creating links to things you may want to learn more about. Like actual details and information about a place not just “my stuff”. Anytime you see something underlined and in blue you should be able to click on it and see more info.) The guy who did the tasting was what the Kiwi called, “a typical grumpy kiwi”. Didn’t think we were going to be able to crack him. He was a tough character but the Kiwi won him over! We got to taste some amazing wines and he was a wealth of knowledge. When I asked him if any of the wines were available in Canada, he explain ever so charmingly, that we Canadians are a difficult bunch to work with. Basically, too many hoops to jump through to ship wine over to Canada. Since I took it, with what I hope was good humour, he continued to share his knowledge and wine. I had a chardonnay there from their reserve collection that has forever changed my mind about chardonnays. I may have gotten a bottle home. Maybe.

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Back into the car with our trusty drivers Axel and M. M volunteered to drive while we had the kids with us. I think Axel felt outnumbered with a 4:1 ratio.

Alistair our main man at Church Road! Super knowledgeable and passionate about the wines. So many tidbits of info it was hard to absorb it all. We tried sooooo many wines there. The stories just kept coming as fast as he could pour. He has two Canadians working there, so didn’t think as harshly about us as our buddy before thankfully.

The building was done almost entirely of reclaimed timber. The timber came from a port in Melbourne. As you may have guessed this place was focused on sustainability. We tried their innovation line of wines. Basically some cool experiments with grapes in the bottle. You can only get these onsite. I tried a Marzemino. I had never heard of the grape before. No surprise really since I am a fun idiot. But I loved this and may have gotten a bottle or two home. Maybe. The kids had a snack and ran around. Time to drop them off and get down to business since both the Kiwi and I were starting to feel invincible and blissfully ignorant.

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Time to take the kids back to the house. Game on for real now. 2 down and 3 to go. It’s time to play with the big boys. We ordered pizza for the kids, changed our outfits and got back into the car with Axel a.k.a. Jeeves. M is back on the sloppy team.

First of the 3 is Trinity Hill. Thankfully, we had sobered up a bit with the quick pit stop. I could actually taste the following wines. They were pretty amazing. Once again we got a great person to help us with the tasting. She also went off the list and showed us some of their super cool wines. She added a viognier for us to taste. It was awesome and you could really taste the area in the wine. I know, I know. I sound like a wine snob or something but it was good. I felt like I was on the beach under a blue umbrella, looking stunning in my new yellow bikini, watching the surf and sipping on this little glass of goodness. See… I am still just a fun idiot. I rarely describe wine with any maturity or sophistication. I am the exact opposite of Robert Parker. Strictly how I feel and where I think I would be drinking that wine. Anyway, I may have gotten a bottle or 2 of that one. Wouldn’t you if you thought you looked that good in a yellow bikini while drinking it!

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We decided to take little detour to Te Mata Peak, where the view is stunning. You can see the whole of Hawk’s Bay up there. It took me a couple of minutes to recover once we reached the top. Once again, the road to the peak was a giant narrow, snaky, up and down mess. It was worth it though for the view.

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Two things happened while we were up on Te Mata. First, I sobered up. Second, time flew by! We wanted to go to Te Mata Estate Winery but it was closing soon, as in 30mins. Jeeves drove like Boudica in her war chariot. A bit dramatic but the drive was dramatic. I didn’t think it was possible to fly like that on those roads. I almost didn’t have time to puke. Anyway, when we got there it looked closed but we decided to try the door anyway. Toby, my new favourite, was there to greet us and let us in to taste some wines. We got there just in time. Phew…

As soon as I saw the bottle, and even through my blissful ignorance, I recognized the label. This is one we can get in Canada. I had no idea how big a deal this place was. Te Mata mostly grows grapes for others. About 70% of their grapes go to other wineries in the country. They only reserve the top 5% to make their wines. Hence the quality and fame. The Coleraine, which sells out every year goes for $115nz. They only make a small amount and only in the best years. Amazing…. We tried a few amazing wines while we were there including the Coleraine. So yummy. I mean like crazy good. I was blown away. I’m really don’t know anything about NZ wines because we have so little exposure to them here in Canada. Or at least, that is my excuse. But they have some amazing and innovative things happening over there and this place is an example of quality innovation. I may have brought a couple bottles home. Maybe.

Ok, last stop for the day. Elephant Hill. Holy crap this place is amazing. This is one of the most stunning wineries I have ever been to. It is located at Cape Kidnappers and as you are sitting in their lounge, you look out to the grapes growing and their reflection in the infinity pool. As luck would have it, there was a spot open in their fine dining restaurant that evening. We just had to wait a little bit in the lounge. How awful.

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I got to sample their syrah. The Hawke’s Bay area is known for syrah. It is a lovely sassy, peppery number. One of the best examples I’ve had. Perfectly balanced. I cannot confirm or deny if one or two of these made it home.

After a couple of glasses of delicious wine in the gorgeous lounge, feeling like rockstars, we went in for dinner.

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I must of said how cool the day was at least a 100 times at dinner. I was vibrating from the whole experience. It was truly an amazing day. All my favourite things rolled into one, wine, food, family, friends, art, scenery, shopping, and new learnings. The best part was that I got to share the day with some of my favourite people. Time to head back to the villa to check on the kids and relive the day.