Day 6 in Blenheim/Marlborough

We managed to fit in our first workout of the trip at the hotel gym this morning, so feeling virtuous about that! Sadly downhill (or not?) from there we started a wine tasting tour at 10.00am. Oh well!

The Marlborough region vineyards are a pretty recent development (1980s) after it was discovered that Sauvignon Blanc grapes thrive in this climate, loving the warm days and cool nights. This has resulted in an enormous expansion and the Wairau Valley is packed with fields of vines (think corn in Nebraska) but flanked by some impressive mountains creating stunning views!

After a short drive through rows and rows of vines, as far as you could see, we made our first stop at Forrest Vineyards. As expected, they had lots of Sauvignon Blanc, but our favs were a Chenin Blanc and a really interesting dessert wine from the Petit Manseng grape. The Chardonnay here is also more like the French style without the over oaky-buttery flavor that is so popular in California. So, even Lauren was grooving on them. We then moved onward to Nautilus Vineyards. Again, they have lots of pride in their Sav Blanc but we also had some interesting Pinot Gris and a nice Pinot Noir. Yikes - it wasn't even lunch time and 8 wines down!

Coincidentally, there is a Framingham (our hometown) in NZ and we've actually had the Framingham Sav Blanc before at home, but it was still fun to come across the poster below. So, we had to take a picture!

The tour provided us with a nice lunch stop that included an impressive charcuterie board (sorry no picture). Our driver then took us into Picton, a cute little seaside town on Marlborough Sound where we hopped onto a catamaran for an afternoon cruise. We sailed the Sound which had spectacular views of the beautiful mountains banked against the water. It reminded us of the Douro Valley in Portugal on a grander scale. We were served local steamed mussels (the largest and most delicious mussels we have ever had) and fresh Salmon, all prepared by our captain AND chef! ....and of course some more wine:) We were happy to have a nice group of other travelers (from Ireland, UK, US and Canada ) to chat with, exchange travel stories and enjoy the day's experience.

Day 6 was an especially good day!

Fun NZ Fact: There are no predator mammals, no indigenous mammals, snakes or spiders in NZ!