BTDU

With today opening with high pressure yet again we took the opportunity to say Good Morning to Nessie, McDuff and Fergus; they may be miniature “hieland coos”, but they are perfectly formed😉

June and Bill have put in a huge amount of work establishing their “lifestyle block” … and it shows!

For example, they are allowed to draw up to 23,000 litres of water per day from the local bore supply to irrigate the cattle paddocks and their garden.

Bill, an electrical engineer, has set up a sophisticated system of zoning with pumps and various controls that enables them to select which zone they want to water, monitoring their litre usage in real time – neat eh? Chapeau Bill👏🏽☺️

I couldn’t resist capturing a few more images of what Kiwis sometimes jokingly refer to as a “Life Sentence block”  before breakfast…

With weather looking like this…

June suggested 2 options for the day, namely:

A wine tasting tour of the local vineyards (at which Hawke’s Bay excels 😎) or….

..well, at this point she was stopped in her tracks by Julie, who was salivating at the prospect of “sampling the local produce”🥂🍷

So, with that matter settled, we just needed Bill to decide which Ute he wanted to drive… decisions, decisions…

Our first stop, just a few kms down the road, was the Sileni Vineyard…

…and it was clear that the “produce samplers” were keen to get started…

…and it met with their approval…

… needless to say, a few bottles were purchased before we set off for the second vineyard☺️

We had briefly visited, the day before, the Black Barn Vineyard, and this was where lunch, with “samples” was partaken of…

To say it was “truly scrumptious” would be an understatement…

We had chosen to sit inside, but had to check out the alternative…

…then, when Julie realised there was one more vineyard still to visit, this was her reaction…😉🥂🍷

The final vineyard was selected especially for it’s sweet wine offerings…

So, while those delights were being enjoyed, I, as a non drinker now, had 40 winks in the sunshine…

It was clear that, during my reverie, the drinking team were sold on their experience…😉

On our way back home we passed through Havelock North where there were more examples of the inspirational street art …

After arriving back at their home the “produce samplers” team topped up their glasses as we sorted out the problems of the world…the main one being what to wear at the Napier International Art Deco Festival starting on the 15th!

Classic first world problem…😉