Day Four – Marlborough Wine Country
Guys, I’m so drunk! Just kidding… kind of 🙂 But honestly, I don’t know how I’m not… wait until you hear about my day.
I had another early morning as I had to drive an hour and a half through the mountains to get from Nelson to Blenheim where I was meeting my wine bike tour. Turns out I was the only one who had booked a full day, so I had a private tour guide! Amelia was born and raised in the Marlborough region and home for her summer break… she’s going to be a junior at the University of Otago. She was so nice and knowledgeable, so I learned a lot about the area and winemaking.
She took me to four wineries in the morning and many of them were smaller, family run operations. In fact, at Bladen Wines, the owner and her husband were the ones pouring my tastings and talking to me about the grapes, the winemaking process and even giving me the history of how they ended up owning a vineyard in Marlborough.
We had lunch at the Wairau River Wines vineyard with the owner of the bike tour company and two older couples who were visiting and touring as well…. one from Reno and the other from Canada. After a tasting, we sat down to lunch and somehow the conversation turned to politics. We were all laughing about how the national budget will need to be increased if Donald Trump becomes our next President because of the amount of hair products he’ll expense.
After lunch, the Canadian couple joined Amelia and I on the bike tour. We hit another three wineries… which put my total for the day at eight! Amelia commented that eight wineries in one day set the record for the most the company has done and she was surprised I was still able to stand up straight, let alone ride my bike…Who’s proud?? Lol! After drinking a LOT of water, I drove 45 minutes north to the picturesque, seaside town of Picton, at the base of the Queen Charlotte Sound. I had a fresh piece of fish for dinner, that was pretty much caught from the sound and put on my plate… delicious! Picton is a quiet town with not much going on, so I was thankful to have a low key night to catch up.
