New Zealand Wine Trail
Trip Start
Sep 22, 2005
1
9
11
Trip End
Dec 17, 2005
Napier, New Zealand
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
We travelled from the West coast to Christchurch on the Tranz-Alpine scenic train, which as the name suggests is a train that crosses the Southern Alps via a scenic route (though we suspect that our views were somewhat impaired by the low cloud laying over the mountains). Spent the next day in Christchurch chilling and wandering around the city.
Stopped in Kaikoura, on route to Blenheim, to see if we could spot a whale or two. The sea was too choppy for the boats to go out so we took to the air in a helicopter instead, but sadly the whales were in hiding and nowhere to be seen. Still, it was a nice ride and the coastline is quite spectacular when viewed from the air.
Blenheim was the starting point for our wine trail and we kicked off with the only nice day of the whole week! Heartened by the sunshine (and ignoring the brisk winds!) we recklessly decided to hire a couple of bikes for the afternoon and cycle round a handful of wineries. Unfortunately H refused to taste and spit the wine out, so was a bit wobbly after a couple of hours, although she puts this down to wind shear.
Blenheim was our last stop in the South Island. We travelled to the North Island on the InterIslander ferry - only slightly stomach churning - picked up our hire car and headed for Martingborough, a village within walking distance of about twenty wineries! Sadly, the weather did not improve - we managed a pleasant walk through the vineyards, a couple of tastings and then retreated to our accomodation with a delicious picnic and, of course, a bottle of nice local wine!
The final stop on the wine trail was Napier. Unfortunately the weather was really s****y here, but, again, we made the best of it and enjoyed a guided tour round the highlights of Napiers' Art Deco architecture (thankfully most Art Deco buildings have balconies which provide good shelter when it's pouring). At one point Mr L had his nose pressed up against the window of a Gentlemans' Club and Massage Parlour - he claimed it had a lovely Art Deco interior, a spurious claim on the face of it, but it did actually turn out to be true. After the walk we enjoyed a long and boozy lunch at the Mission Estate winery, where we had a balcony table (under electric heaters!) but still enjoyed a fabulous view, albeit through driving rain (we can almost feel your sympathy - not!).
Next stop is Wellington where we are hoping to find brighter weather.
