So I finally started working here in New Zealand. It is a temp job, but its money and that means I can do things like leave Wellington and explore this beautiful country. And being a white wine fan, my first place trip was, of course, to Marlborough wine country.
The region isn’t that far from Wellington, but it is on the South Island (or what’s known to the locals as the “main land,”) so that means you either have to get on a plane or boat. Both modes of transportation are adventures in their own right, and thankfully my friend who booked the trip had us take a boat there, and a plane back.
You have two ferry options to cross the Cook Strait from Wellington to Picton: either the Interislander or the Bluebridge ferry. On this sailing, we took the Interislander, which is the original, although I am told there are pros and cons to both.
If you luck out like us, the ferry ride will provide you with stunning views of both islands and crisp blue waters. There’s really no words to describe it, and for around $50 NZD ($37.30 USD) it is a real bargain. (However, if you go on a stormy day it may not be as smooth, as some riders found out a few days later.)
In case you don’t know, New Zealand is a country of micro-climates. It means a quick car trip could take you from a chilly, windy day in one place to a beautiful, still sunny place in another. And that’s really what happened to us. Unlike the blustery, chilly and gray Wellington I am currently calling home, the other side of the strait is beautiful and sunny. It is lush with palmettos, and once we arrived in Blenheim, I felt like I was in a beautiful small seaside town somewhere in South Carolina.
Blenheim may be tiny and quaint, but it is a lot of fun. And its hotels have heat so I felt like a real queen. (Mostly because it had insulation and heat in all rooms.) My friends and I got some lunch at a wonderful Indian Restaurant called Mango in town. And then, after a quick nap we out to enjoy a quick wine tasting before heading to a local pub to watch the rugby test between the New Zealand All Blacks and the British & Irish Lions. The game was a close one, and really fun to watch until it ended in a tie! Maybe it is because I’m American, but watching match up between two great teams that only happen more than a decade apart end without a winner is a bit of a bummer.
The real fun began the next day when we hopped on the Highlight Wine Tour van to check out a few wineries in the region. The Marlborough area, known for its Sauvignon Blancs because of its warm days and cool nights, is beautiful and vast. Just take a ride down the main road and you’ll see wineries lining both sides, some of which are full of sheep and lambs to helping to keep the grass trimmed. (Unfortunately, we were driving past these wineries so I didn’t get any pictures.)
We visited several wineries on our trip, which ended up being private since we went off season. (Most people visit Marlborough in the summer months.) It was, unfortunately, a bit rainy so we didn’t get to stroll the vineyards like I would like to, but I still enjoyed myself. This was my first wine tour anywhere, and the neat thing about Highlight is the tour is tailored to who is on the bus, so the wineries we were planning on visiting changed once or twice throughout the day. For example, we originally were going to visit vineyards known for their rieslings (my favorite variety, don’t judge,) but as the day went on we were really keen on drinking reds, so instead, we visited a place specializing in Pinot Noirs. It was a really wonderful experience, and our tour guide was a wonderful and cheeky woman named Colleen who picked up on our sense of humor quite quickly. We loved her so much we gave her a hug at the end of the trip.
But the adventure didn’t end there. Remember I said the flight was equally adventurous as the ferry? That’s because we flew in a Cessna! While I have flown in small planes before, I had never flown on one commercially and enjoyed this unique experience. Because it is was so tiny, you could watch the pilots fly the plane, and even hear all of the conversations being had between other passengers. (Additionally, you could wake everyone up who was sleeping by just checking your phone!) There were also more traditional flight amenities, including a magazine in for each passenger to read. (And oddly enough, I had more leg-space on that 25-minute flight over the Cook Strait than I ever had on more standard commercial airplanes.) I’ll admit the flight was a bit bumpy going into “Windy Welly” but that wouldn’t deter me from doing it again. The company that flies the planes, SoundsAir, flies from multiple destinations around New Zealand and its something I would suggest you look into should you ever decide to visit.
