Napier is apparently world renowned for its Art Deco buildings after the town was rebuilt after the big 1931 earthquake that hit the town. The town center is fairly small so we thought we'd just follow the Lonely Planet walking tour to help us have a look around. The buildings were rebuilt as cheaply as possible and as such Concrete was used instead of wood or bricks. This was shaped in the style of the day: Art Deco. Once you start seeing the features and colours you can't miss then, and they adorn all of the buildings in central town. New buildings do not have to follow the trend, but are strongly encouraged to do so by the local authorities.

The big event for the day was going on a wine tour round the famous Hawkes Bay vineyards. Our motel owners recommended the very knowledgeable Vince's Tour which was great. We were ferried round in a little van and went to one mainstream and three boutique vineyards. All in all it was a fun day during which we learnt a bit about wine and drank a whole lot more!

Moana Park: First vineyard of the day, and Tony was told off by Vince for chewing gum! Moana Park was a more organic place where they tried to avoid using chemical processes whilst making their wine. We started with a non-alcoholic "Verjus" which tasted of nerds (those old sweets!) and cleared the palette. On the whole I liked the wines here, but they were pretty expensive. I guess that's the problem with the small vineyards, they have to charge a lot to cover their overheads.

Hatton Estate: This was run by an ex-finance guy and his wife. They seemed very proud of what they'd achieved and were selective to who they sold their wines. I think this was a smart strategy in assuring exclusivity to their wines and therefore keeping their demand high along with the prices! The man liked to take massive gulps then spit it all out - not quite for me, although it got me in the habbit of spitting out the ones I didn't like. At this place I didn't like their syrah or rose wines, but liked the reds. We bought one of their 2004 reserves, but their top wine was a bit out of our league. They had a feedback form asking which your favourite restaurant was across the globe. I think this is how he finds posh restaurants to try and pitch his wine to - he only sold to exclusive places. There was a nice collie dog keeping us company too!

Trinity Hill: A more commercial place, selling more wines, and hence cheaper wines. I liked the mainstream wines here, like the sauvignon blanc and the pinot gris. We skipped the platter, and almost got left behind as we chilled out on the sofas! A few of the wines here had won awards.

Matariki Wines: An interesting, charismatic guy taught us about the Matariki wines and we even got to chat to the wine-expert person too. I liked the white wines here, especially the chardonnay, and we got to try their dessert wine at the end - this was a fantastic late harvest reisling. It wasn't too sweet, and we almost bought a bottle! One to look out for in the future.

We finished New Year's Eve with a New Zealand monopoly session lasting 4 hours! After an easy victory for Tony we went up to the balcony to try and watch the fireworks. Luckily they were close enough to see, but unfortunately Scott locked new family out on the balcony while he pottered around cleaning up! Oops!

All in all, I think I've had an amazing year in 2007. Hopefully 2008 will live up to it, but it's going to have to be special!