Blanc.

We stayed one night back in Picton before heading off for a new adventure. We had spent plenty of time canoeing, hiking, and camping so we thought that it would be nice to spoil ourselves a bit. Being on a half year vacation is very difficult. So we headed to one of the most famous wine regions of the world, Malborough.

Checking the crops.

The Malborough area of New Zealand is very popular for its Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, and recently its Pinot Noir. We sampled them all. The first day that we arrived we walked to a few of the closest wineries. We found out what makes a family run winery much better than a giant multi national conglomerate when the owners of Gibson Bridge offered to drive us home after hearing us whine (sorry for the bad pun) about how tired we were. We hit up the only shop in town for sausages and garlic bread and barbecued our way to heaven with a great bottle of Gibson Bridge Pinot Gris.

 

Life is rough here.

The following day we hired bikes, bought some crackers and cheese, and set off to try as many wines as we could. We cycled the countryside and ate leftover sausages, garlic bread, and many different cheeses with our bottle of River Farm Sauvignon Blanc. What a great day. Following that, we had dinner with a Pinot Noir from Te Whare Ra.

 Highfield Estate is a big pink castle that looks out over the vineyards.

Te Whare Ra was another small and family run winery that impressed us enough to return to it to buy our bottle for dinner. The plan is to try and tear ourselves away from the wine country and head to Nelson. There we hope to trade work for accommodation and not spend much money. Apparently, the hostels need extra hands as the holidays roll around. However, we are not used to working much and I wouldn't be surprised if we lived in a tent off the beaten path for the next couple of weeks!