Martinborough to Wellington

Martinborough is surrounded by vineyards and over 20 cellar doors, most within walking distance of the township. We decided to tandem bike it yesterday morning - in perfect cycling conditions: light cool breeze and very clear conditions.

This would have to be one of the prettiest wine regions we've visited - the vineyards all look like well tended gardens - it's easy cycling too - with the roads all flat and few vehicles.

We can see the vineyards are pretty busy this morning with teams of people out netting the vines - in readiness for ripening and picking next month.

 This region specialises in Pinot grapes(no wonder as it is rarely very hot here!)

 ...and yes there are a lot of sheep on the North Island even in the midst of this wine country.

After a few hours of picturesque cycling - and not too much tasting - as we find that a bit of a challenge before lunch (especially being in charge of a bike) - we finally stopped for lunch at the picturesque Palliser Estate winery on the main road leading in to Martinborough.

In the warm sunshine it seemed that a 2015 Rose was the order of the day - and a great choice with its intense strawberry flavours and watermelon undertones!

 ...and a superb NZ cheese platter to set off the gorgeous flavours of the Rose. Our lunch was made even more enjoyable with the company of two US tourists from Washington DC. They were both articulate, intelligent and insightful older guys - we had a great conversation about the situation in the US (as well as sharing NZ tourist tales).

After lunch it was just a little over an hour's drive south, through winding mountain roads, to Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. We had to return our rental car to the airport and make our way back to our city hotel - so it was quite late in the afternoon before we ventured out for our first walk around the city.  We started at the government building, corporate and "big shops" end of town but fairly quickly came to areas of inner suburbia that reminded us a lot of the timber San Francisco style houses....perched high on the hills overlooking Wellington Harbour.

 with some Art Deco in the mix....

 Around the groovy Te Are area it is a bit more urban grunge...........

With a real mix of architectural styles around Hannah Lane and the Egmont precinct.

We made it all the way up to Aro Street - past the famous "Garage Project", Wellington's premium boutique brewery (in the premises of a former garage!).

.........Before settling in for a tasting at the crowded Garage Project Bar just a bit up the road from the Brewery. Rob had a lot of advice from the friendly locals (everyone is SO friendly here) about which beer to try......

We ended up with a Garagista (me) and a Red Rock Reserve with Nitro (Rob).......

 .... and then a delicious meal of whole flounder with cherry tomatoes, raisins, oregano and lemon with a glass of Te Kairanga Pinot Noir (from one of the vineyards we cycled past in the morning) at Cafe Aro, just opposite. We managed to stagger the just under 2 kms back to our hotel, after another wonderful day in NZ!

Napier to Martinborough

After settling into the Edgewater Motel on Marine Parade and viewing the documentary about the momentous 1931 earthquake at the Napier Art Deco Centre we went for a walk around the town centre of NZ's famous "Art Deco" town.....

But by 5.30pm it was starting to look like a heavy downfall was imminent - and we were starting to realise that the Art Deco heart of Napier was actually pretty quiet during the week (I think the fun part of town was where we were at lunchtime at the old Port Ahuriri), so with rain threatening we took refuge at the Turkish Kilim Restaurant which was very close to our Motel....a great choice as it turned out as the food was great - very fresh and very light and flavoursome.  Afterwards, we got soaked on the short walk back to Edgewater!

We left Napier this morning in steady rain about 9.30am with an almost 4 hour drive ahead of us to Martinborough, the gourmet wine district of the North Island. Under clearing skies we had a short stop in Woodville on the A2 for a great coffee and an early lunch (making a point to avoid Woodville's famous "gourmet" cheese cakes) and then a much longer stop at Pukaha Mount Bruce, a wildlife restoration centre in a protected forest area administered by the NZ Wildlife service.  The main objective of Pukaha is to help restore native wildlife (especially birds) through breeding and incubation programs...but for us it was just as interesting to see an area where the great native NZ forests are being restored.

During our visit we were lucky enough to see a very rare Manukura, little white kiwi (under very low light because they are nocturnal animals), .....

 and a Kereru, the largest pigeon in NZ as well as a Tui, in the free flight aviary, along with a Korimako (bellbird) and a pair of native ducks (whio). Pukaha is a low key "tourist experience" but we really appreciated its authentic conservation credentials.

It was close to 5.00pm by the time we pulled into Martinborough, the so called gourmet wine capital of the North Island. We love our room at the beautiful old Martinborough Hotel, on the town's main square.

We enjoyed a glass of Pinot Gris (and Rob a Pinot Noir) from the local Ata Rangi vineyard (superb) before dinner at "Cool Change", a very cool little bar/restaurant opposite our hotel. we both enjoyed pan fried local fish (caught this morning) with prawns, a veggie ragout and bean salad - beautiful! especially with a glass of  Lawson's Dry Hills Marlborough Riesling (excellent match!!). We are loving Martinborough!

Cool Change is such a cool, groovy local - this is our view of it from our room at the Martinborough Hotel.