What to do in Wellington?

[OzKiwiJJ]

11 hours ago, 2Scots said:

Thank you for your response. The tour stops at the following 3 wineries:  Palliser, Poppies and Te Kairanga.  

It's a few years since I visited Martinborough but Te Kairanga has always been one of my favourite Martinborough wineries, Palliser is also good but I don't know Poppies. Martinborough is one of New Zealand's top Pinot Noir regions so if you like that style of wine it's well worth visiting.

[2Scots]

Aloha and thank you very much for the comments.  I'm going to try this trip. 🙂   We are looking forward to our cruise in September and will be excited to spend 2 days in Sydney as well. Love the city.

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

7 hours ago, 2Scots said:

Aloha and thank you very much for the comments.  I'm going to try this trip. 🙂   We are looking forward to our cruise in September and will be excited to spend 2 days in Sydney as well. Love the city.

 

Enjoy your cruise! I'm looking forward to visiting Hawaii in September on Sea Princess.

[Globaliser]

 

On 5/14/2019 at 7:41 AM, OzKiwiJJ said:

On 5/13/2019 at 8:33 PM, 2Scots said:

Thank you for your response. The tour stops at the following 3 wineries:  Palliser, Poppies and Te Kairanga.  

 

It's a few years since I visited Martinborough but Te Kairanga has always been one of my favourite Martinborough wineries, Palliser is also good but I don't know Poppies. Martinborough is one of New Zealand's top Pinot Noir regions so if you like that style of wine it's well worth visiting.

 

If you visit Te Kairanga, you will also be able to taste wines from Martinborough Vineyards, which has basically relocated its cellar door operation to Te Kairanga. I don't know the exact nature of the relationship between them but there are enough similarities between the websites to suggest that the two are now in common ownership.

 

I can't say that I was bowled over by anything there when I visited them in January. If you want to try top-notch wines to make the trip worthwhile, I'd suggest going to Ata Rangi. You have to book an appointment for one of their set sessions, which have limited capacity. But it's definitely worthwhile making the effort.

[2Scots]

Aloha, Thank you very much for your comment on the Ata Rangi vineyard visit.  I will look into it.  Appreciate your time. 🙂

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

You'd probably have to request a special tour to go to Ata Rangi. If they're only doing tasting by appointment these days it may not be easy to organise though. They do make some of the best Pinot Noir in NZ and, despite it being very expensive, a few bottles have made their way onto my wine cellar over the years. 😄

[Globaliser]

5 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

You'd probably have to request a special tour to go to Ata Rangi. If they're only doing tasting by appointment these days it may not be easy to organise though.

 

I wonder whether the operator might be flexible enough to accommodate this within its standard tour. Although Ata Rangi requires booking, it doesn't charge - so it would simply be a question of the operator getting you there at the right time and picking you up again afterwards. We're not talking about big distances between wineries.

 

Although the cynic in me does wonder a bit about whether the wineries that are normally visited pay a commission to the tour operator ...

[OzKiwiJJ]

It would still have to be arranged ahead of time.

 

And yes, that's always a possibility with any winery tours but there isn't much you can do about it if you have limited time to visit a wine region.