Rod's on a Mission with family | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

Rod Stewart's stay in the Bay for the big Mission Estate Winery Concert this Saturday looks set to be a family affair.

The 66-year-old rocker, who is performing at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre tonight, has been in Australia for 18 days since arriving in Perth on February 3 to kick off the eight-gig downunder tour.

While relaxing between concerts in Sydney a week ago he was spotted happily wandering into a trendy seafront restaurant dressed casually in a red and white checked shirt and white slacks.

He arrived with a family entourage of about six people including wife Penny Lancaster, 7-year-old son Alastair and 1-year-old son Aiden, who was accompanied by a nanny.

His travel and accommodation arrangements for his stay in the Bay are not public information, although it is anticipated he will arrive as he did in 2005 by private aircraft on Thursday afternoon.

The last time he visited the Bay his plane parked well out on the tarmac and a limousine with darkened windows drove out to pick up him and Penny.

And off they went, to what emerged later as Mangapapa Petite Hotel on the road to Havelock North. He was spotted out jogging, and the day before the concert was seen in a Napier antiques shop happily browsing the shelves. He also signed an autograph for one fan who approached.

Just where he is staying this time is, of course, confidential.

Saturday's concert will be the last of the downunder tour. From Napier he will take a break before heading to the USA for an eight-concert engagement at Caesar's Colosseum in Las Vegas.

Those heading for this weekend's concert appear to be in for another huge treat. His Australian concerts were hailed and lauded in the press, and on blog and Facebook sites.

His show, titled The Hits, features all his big-selling numbers and the Aussies couldn't get enough of him.

"His voice - it was just amazing - just spot-on," one person wrote.

"He hasn't even aged - it was just Rod like he always was," another cooed.

So what are the Mission-goers set to hear?

Everything.

Maggie May, You Wear It Well, Stay With Me, I Don't Want to Talk About It, You're in my Heart, Sailing, Forever Young, Downtown Train, First Cut is the Deepest ... and that just scratches the surface.

In a story yesterday on singing duo Hey Miss, who will be performing at the Mission on Saturday, one of the women was wrongly identified as Cassandra McCowan. We apologise for the error.