Marlborough Wine Region, NZ

We arrived to our final New Zealand destination, Blenheim in the Marlborough region after a quick, early morning flight from Christchurch. We were greeted with sunny skies and rolling hills of the sauvignon blanc grape-growing region.

Day 1:
We didn't want to waste any time so we quickly checked into our hotel, Scenic Hotel Marlborough and away we went in our rental car, driving on the left-hand side of the road. 

We made our first stop to Yealands Winery taking in a picturesque view of their expansive land. We did the driving tour where we were able to stop along the route, at one point we were standing looking out at the ocean and to our left was hills of vineyards for as far as the eye could see. It was such a beautiful sight to see. The landscape here in New Zealand impressed me more every day. Next stop, lunch and a wine flight tasting at Saint Clair Family Estates. We enjoyed lunch in their vineyard kitchen, followed by a dessert that is currently in my list of top desserts I've every enjoyed, actually topping the list at #1. This plate of heavenly goodness came out in the form of dessert that included passionfruit and mango. I still can't stop dreaming about it. We finished our wine tasting for day 1 at Rock Ferry. We loved all the pinot noirs we tasted but were won over by their chardonnay and added a bottle to our "souvenir" pile. 

Our hotel had a great little pool and we decided to finish the afternoon off by enjoying the delightful sunshine by the pool. We had initially thought the whole trip would be pretty warm weather since it was summer there but we got pretty mild temps the whole time. We were glad to take in the great 80's weather and bask in the glorious sunshine to end our "summer" trip. 

Day 2:
Our last day to sleep in on our New Zealand adventure! We took our time getting to the wineries as we had changed our plans up a little. Initially we had intended to rent bikes and tour around on our last day to wineries via bikes but it was extremely windy so we nixed the bikes and were glad we had our rental car. While we were in Wellington we picked up a bottle of Whitehaven rose and enjoyed it with Penny in Queenstown. It turned out to be quite a delicious bottle of Marlborough wine and were excited to check out the winery. We made our way to Whitehaven and enjoyed a tasting flight. The winery was located in a little cluster of cute shops where we happened to find a perfect wool blanket to add to our home. We found our way to Wither Hills for a lunch and glass of wine. It was a such a nice day to share some delicious shared plates and wine out on the terrace. We wanted to relax and enjoy the rest of our last vacation day so we headed back to be poolside for the rest of the afternoon. 

Final day:
We made our way to the Blenheim airport, which is one of the smallest airports I've ever flown out of (comparable to the tiny Lanai and Kona airports), not to mention the fact that you don't even have to go through security to get to the gates. Once you walk in the door, the check-in and gate area are all in the same spot basically. This blew our American minds, always ready for security and long lines! Off we went on our short flight to Auckland. From Auckland we had our long leg, 11 hr flight to San Francisco, then 2 hr. flight back to Seattle.