Wellington & Wine Tasting

---

Wellington

Our last stop in the North Island was for a weekend in Windy Welly! And boy it lives up to its name. We arrived there stiff legged (walking like penguins, seriously) in the afternoon and got checked into our city centre, waterfront campervan site! It was pretty cool to be sleeping and using toilets/showers in the city centre. One of our neighbours even decided to avail of the facilities by walking with only a towel covering them across the site to the shower… I think the option of changing clothes in there might have been wise?!

So John needed to get a haircut and we went in search of a place while taking in the feel of the city. It was clear there are definitely an eclectic mix of people living here and there was plenty of interesting characters walking the streets but overall the city had a good vibe. Over the few days there I think that it is like a mix of Dublin and Galway because a lot of the shops/bars etc. are more like what you would find in Dublin but the overall vibe, buskers, artsy feel is more like Galway. So a good balance, apart from the wind….. John found a slick barbers and got a bargain haircut for 25 dollars. His Vietnamese haircut cost a fraction of that, tut tut. After the haircut we grabbed lunch and walked along the waterfront taking in the view of the harbour. We then found a discount cosmetics sale and I found perfume for 8dollars, happy me cos I’ve been missing perfume a lot but couldn’t justify buying any cos I have a few bottles at home!

One of the main reasons we were hanging in Wellington for the weekend was to meet up with Shaun from home! So it was even better when he announced he was engaged a few weeks before we arrived and that he was having a shindig over the weekend! On the Friday night, Shaun introduced us to some pretty cool bars in the city. Of course the boys had a few games of pool too! The bar we ended the night in was pretty funky and reminds me of Hogan’s upstairs or as some people call it “the no name bar” in Dublin. It’s called the Library and has lots of books everywhere, little nooks and crannies and a cute little spot for a band to play. For us we had a treat – a really really good jazz band. They were wonderful and their lead singer should have been famous I reckon! We also rubbed shoulders with Andy Circus (Gollum, King Kong), well rubbed shoulders not really, but we were very close to him in the bar. We caught up with Shaun and Danica and had a good night chatting about where our lives are at and what we have been up to.

The next morning we were up early to Skype home and to meet for brunch at a funky café called Fidel’s. It’s conveniently located on Cuba St (think Shop St/Grafton St combined) and it was bustling. We got a cute corner booth and ordered our scrummy “feast” breakfasts. Shaun promised it was nice and he didn’t lie. The first hint of a fry I’ve had since I left Ireland but it was much better. After brunch we parted ways, John and I headed for the Te Papa museum on the waterfront. This place is the crème de la crème of museums and it has the perfect balance of facts, interactivity and fun. There are 6 floors and it really isn’t possible to get through it all in one day even. So we had a look at stuff about earthquakes, wildlife, aquatic life, the first settlers etc. We even got to see the display of a real Giant Squid – pretty impressive!

That night we went to Shaun and Danica’s engagement party. It was lovely to meet their friends and we had a very good laugh with a few of them! We also got some good tips about wineries to visit and places to get good food on the south island. We had an early night though, we had to be up early for our ferry to the south island and the hangover from the night before was still hanging on. It was lovely to meet up and see what life in Wellington is like!

Marlborough Wine Region

After a three hour crossing on the interislander ferry crossing the windy Cook Strait between Wellington and Picton (on the south island) we knew where we were headed next! We had to go in the direction of Blenheim – the Marlborough Wine Region. I was dying to do some wine tasting and visit a few wineries. The ferry was delayed so we got to Blenheim at about 1pm meaning we only had the afternoon to squeeze in some tastings. This also meant that we would be doing it solo cos the last tours leave at 1. We had a few options – pay a taxi to drive us around, rent bikes and cycle around or one of us drive while the other is the lucky one. John was way too good and the next thing we know we are hopping between some wineries in the Mysteron! I was like a child in a sweet shop. The first we visited was Rock Ferry (on advice from Shaun’s friends). I tasted four of their wines but it was really posh and booked out for lunch so it was a bit daunting (especially since I literally would drink vinegar if they told me it was wine). The lady was very helpful and answered a few of my (silly) questions. Three of the wines were nice, one not so nice. The tastings are free and the size they give you is pretty big so I was happy out!

Next we drove along the tree lined back roads with pretty mountains overlooking them to a winery called St Clair. As soon as we arrived, it felt more relaxed and they had room for lunch! The winery is a family run affair and the girl helping me with the tasting mentioned that it is the largest remaining family run winery in the region. The place did feel more welcoming than the previous. We ordered some lunch and while we waited I did some more tasting. I was starting to feel like one of those “lady who lunches”, it was nice! So I tried about 5/6 wines this time while John sat in the sun shaded garden chilling. About three wines in, I had the most beautiful Sauvignon Blanc and I started appreciating the fact that there is a point to having the proper wines! It was a one vineyard batch of grapes (a lot of the wines are mixtures of grapes from different vineyards) that was so special it could be traced to the exact vine line. Oh it was good. I tasted a few more before lunch was served. Of course I had to order a glass of my favourite to have with lunch.

Lunch was a venison burger (first time for everything) for me and John had a Chicken filo pasty/quiche like dish. The food was absolutely delicious and I started to forget we are backpacking….. When the glass of wine arrived I couldn’t believe the size of it and I was definitely beaming! It was so chilled sitting on a Sunday afternoon in this little garden, sipping on a nice wine, eating delicious lunch. We had almost finished our lunch with a family at the table next to us had some platters delivered and we had total food envy, oops! Should have gone for the cheese and meat with wine option. We will know for again.

Our final stop was at the Brancott Estate and at this stage the wine tastings and huge glass were going to my head. I wanted to visit this place cos I heard of it at home. On the way here we passed Cloudy Bay but it is VERY expensive to buy here never mind visiting the winery. There was a big difference between the Brancott Estate and the previous two in that it was one of the first in the region and is very big and caters for lots of tourists. But this didn’t detract from the place at all. When we parked up and walked towards their main building, the size of the place was breath-taking and looking out at the views of all their vineyards with the mountainous backdrop was marvellous. When we got to the building we watched a video on the history of the estate which was interesting and had a look at their very broad selection of wines. I didn’t do any tasting here because there was a couple totally delaying the procedure, asking millions of questions, so we decided to buy a bottle to share later that evening instead!

On we headed to our campsite for the night, stopping to pick up some supplies in a supermarket on the way. When we got there, it was literally in the middle of nowhere and we were the only ones who stayed there that night. It was lovely to be in such a remote forest location – definitely the most remote so far! We had a lovely evening, sipping on our wine with silence, only the wind rustling the trees outside.

---