Hi Chiu.
Cool, you should have a great time. Hopefully you have rental car or some transport as the distances are fairly big. When I go I tend to break the vineyards down into areas and visit over several days. If you have only a day, I’d recommend the following as a ‘best of’, north to south. Of course you can do it south to north if you are down Havelock way.
Start north of Napier at Esk Valley, ask about Terraces and the Reserve Bordeaux blend and Syrah. You could inquire if Gordon Russell the winemaker is available, a nice guy.
Going south from Napier it’s worth a diversion out west to Sacred Hill who make some of NZ’s best Chardonnay, Bordeaux blend and Syrah (Riflemans, Helmsman and Deerstalkers). But phone ahead to check they’re open: see http://www.sacredhill.com. If you feel lucky you could ask if Tony Bish, the winemaker, is available to show you around.
Most tourists go to Mission Estate and Church Road Winery in Taradale that have some good wines, particularly their prestige Tom Cab/Merlot and Chardonnay but, for me, they’re a bit too touristy.
Going south, out in the west, you may want to spend most of your time in The Gimblett Gravels/State 50 road. North to south highlights here are Stonecroft (who started it all, with excellent Syrah and Gerwurtz), Unison (small selection, all good), Newton Forest Cornerstone (top Bordeaux blend), Trinity Hill and Billancia (Hommage and other top Syrahs).
Now in Bridge Pa, in the Ngatarawa triangle at the bottom of the Gravels, Ngatarawa with its Chardonnays and late harvest wines is worth a look, as is Bridge Pa (good Louis Syrah) and Sileni is ok (a good place for a meal).
As you can see there’s plenty there for a day.
However, you’ll probably want to go east towards Havelock Nth to visit Te Mata (although they don’t normally taste their famous wines like Coleraine, but you could phone ahead and ask http://www.temata.co.nz) and out to the impressive Craggy Range where they do a full tasting menu and have a great restaurant). If you have time you could stop at Black Barn (good barrel fermented Chardonnay, again excellent restaurant).
… And then you could go past Clive to the east coast to Elephant Hill with a range of excellent Syrahs and Clearview (with a turbo charged Reserve Chardonnay, if you like that style and ambient restaurant by the sea). A great place to visit.
So obviously, in a day, you would do some bits of that (and there are other good vineyards I have missed). There are also good places to taste HB wines in both Napier and Hastings.
You can PM me if you are going to be in Wellington (I can get wine friends together) or if you have questions about any of this.
Please post your thoughts and enjoy!
Cheers, Howard