Day 23 Napier to Wellington

Last night's Happy Hour included vegetable fritters with a pepper jelly and a new guest, Gregorio, from a little town in northern Spain who came for 6 weeks of World Cup Rugby.  He was fluent in French but knew almost no English, so Chris felt sorry for him and struggled with French, which was a pretty successful effort. When he left to meet a Spanish friend, we went to the Irish Pub we had seen earlier.  When we got there place was empty, so we wandered till we found a small Italian place where we had a lovely dinner. The owner was out of central casting - could do a Danny Divito look alike - and the Tuscan style works well with the local fresh foods.  And, surprise, the two Spaniards sat next to us!  We left after 9 to hear the live music at the pub, and they joined us there too.  The local guitarist sang our oldies and country, and the few people there sang along.  It wasn't Irish but it was fun.  We drove the other two back with us so they didn't have to climb the big hill.
 
Today we had a big NZ breakfast with them, played with the 2 year old grandson Oliver, and said goodbye to all.

Oliver with Crabette and the iPad:

We drove south thru the Hawke's Bay region, loads of vineyards and fruit trees in early bloom - beautiful, like all NZ scenery.   We turned east about an hour out of Wellington to visit another small but very prestigious wine region near the town of Martinborough.  Had soup and bread for lunch but did not do any wine tasting, and drove on to Wellington.  This part of the trip would make a James Bond fan think they were in the French Alps, with Grand Prix switch backs up and down 15 miles of 2 lane road that begged for road race -  Bill was well mannered and did not scare Chris (well not often).  We got to the James Cook Hotel on the waterfront, next to the cable car route up to the top of the mountain overlooking the harbor.  We had dinner at The Queens Harbor Club, it seems to be an old yacht club dining deck overlooking Wellington Harbor-lots of old woodwork and a view of the marina.  Good night for now, we explore Wellington tomorrow.