New Zealand

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Day 1: Friday January 30, 2026 - Napier

Day 2: Saturday - Hawkes Bay

After breakfast we depart for our first winery visit in the area. We will soon be at the Craggy Range winery.
Hawkes Bay with its Mediterranean climate and fertile soil is a prime fruit producing area.

The soils in the region are well suited for red grapes especially in the Gimblett Gravels area.

En route to the winery we will drive to the top of Te Mata peak for a splendid view of the Hawkes Bay region.

Craggy Range sources its wines locally and also from the cooler Wairarapa region further south. We will visit the modern winery and learn some of the secrets about why they have been so successful.

Craggy Range has one of the best restaurants in the area.

We will enjoy lunch there in the company of the winemaker with a selection of Craggy Range wines.

After lunch we return to the hotel. The balance of the afternoon can be filled with a visit to the Ocean Spa or maybe visiting the shops in the town or strolling along the shoreline of Hawkes Bay.

The evening will be free for visiting Napier with its amazing collection of art deco buildings or wandering by the sea along Marine Parade, and dining at one of the many quayside restaurants. (B,L)

Day 3: Sunday - Hawkes Bay

After breakfast we leave the hotel to visit the nearby C J Pask winery for a tasting and winery visit with the winemaker.

The Pask winery is renowned for its red wines from syrah, merlot and cabernet sauvignon.

After the tasting we head to Sileni for a tasting followed by lunch. Established in 1998, Sileni was inspired by ancient Greek mythology. The Sileni were renowned for their love of wine, feasting and a good time.

The winery is in the sub-region of the Bridge of Pa, a triangle with their grapes coming from different parts of the region. Some are grown on the hotter plains at sea level which suit merlot-dominant Bordeaux blends, and Northern Rhone style syrah, and semillon.

The cooler, higher altitude foothills and coastal sites suit the Burgundy varieties of chardonnay and pinot noir, along with pinot gris and a ripe-style sauvignon blanc.

They also produce Marlborough sauvignon blanc from their own vineyards in that region that we will see later on the trip.

After lunch we return to the hotel. The balance of the afternoon is free for relaxing by the sea.

Early evening we leave to drive to the nearby town of Hastings for a wine tasting and supper at a wine bar which has a large selection of local wines. (B,L,D)

 

Day 4: Monday - Martinborough
We check out of our hotel after breakfast and leave in our bus for the drive to Martinborough We will pass through many small towns today and will soon become familiar with the typical landscape of rural New Zealand. We will see thousands of sheep and cows. Each market town that we will pass through has showrooms of agricultural machinery and hardware stores necessary to serve the community. After about 90 minutes on our route we will arrive in Norsewood. This small town is known for its woolen industry. The Norsewood factory outlet store has something for everyone. After a short visit to the store and maybe a cup of coffee we will be back on the road.     30 minutes later, we will see the tall building that houses the Tui Brewery.
We will stop here for lunch. For those that wish there will be an opportunity to sample some of their beers and take a self guided tour of the brewing process. Located in Mangatainoka in the Tararua district, Tui Brewery has been around in one form or another since Henry Wagstaff first set up shop on the banks of the Mangatainoka River in 1889. The historic home of all things Tui welcomes guests to sample a selection of award-winning beers and ciders. One can experience a 3 or 6 beer tasting tray and take the self-guided Tuiversity beer masterclass to learn about all the wonders of craft beer.
After our lunch stop, we will get back on the road towards the picturesque town of Martinborough nestling in hills surrounded by vineyards where we will arrive about 90 minutes after leaving the brewery.

We will checkin to the Martinborough Hotel which lies in the centre of town. We will stay here two nights. The evening will be free to explore the town, its bars, shops and restaurants. (B,L)
Day 5: Tuesday - Martinborough The region's wineries are mostly close together around the edges of the small town. We leave our hotel after breakfast for a short walk through the vineyards to the Ata Rangi Estate for a tour and tasting Ata Rangi was founded by Clive Paton in 1980. The first vines were planted on a small, stony sheep paddock at the edge of the Martinborough Village. Clive’s sister Alison bought an adjoining block soon after and in 1986 Clive’s partner Phyll Pattie bought a share in the business after moving from Marlborough where she had been working as a winemaker. I first met Clive in 2003 and he has been a great help with setting up my tours. Forty years on Ata Rangi has become one of the New World’s most respected pinot noir producers.
		We will walk back into town after the tasting for our lunch break and maybe a rest back at the hotel. We will gather at the hotel early afternoon to take our bus to visit the Escarpment Winery. In 1999 Larry McKenna helped launch the winery and I got to know him soon thereafter and we have become good friends.

The Te Muna Road vineyards where the winery is located were already established but it was Larry and the Craggy Range team under Steve Smith that have made them famous, though low yields can make the going tough there at times. In 2018, the Barossa winery Torbreck purchased Escarpment. Larry continued to manage the winery until recently. He is now to be found in Central Otago where he is consulting to several wineries. Our bus will bring us back to the hotel after the visit to Escarpment.
Late afternoon we will leave for dinner at the White Swan Hotel in the nearby small town of Greytown. (B,D)
Day 6: Wednesday - Martinborough   Late morning we will checkout of the hotel but before leaving the town of Martinborough we will visit Poppies Winery for a tasting followed by lunch with their wines. Poppy and Shayne Hammond opened their winery in 2012 and the Cellar Door has become a popular destination for dining and events with weddings often being celebrated there. Their vineyard platters reflect the season and are designed for those that love wine, food and conversation. After lunch we will drive south on our way to Wellington airport. Wellington is the capital city and is about 90 minutes away over the mountains to the south of Martinborough. Late afternoon we will make the short flight from there to Blenheim, Marlborough. Marlborough is New Zealand's largest wine region accounting for three quarters of the country's wine production, 70% of its vineyard area and 85% of its wine exports. There are over 160 wineries closely grouped together.

It is a short drive from the airport in Blenheim to our hotel for the next three nights in Marlborough.

Scenic Hotel Marlborough is in the centre of the small town of Blenheim at the heart of the Marlborough wine region.

Soon after arrival we will take dinner together in Savvy Restaurant and Bar. (B,L,D)

Day 7: Thursday - Marlborough

After breakfast in the hotel we will visit wineries in the Blenheim region.

We will go first to Greywacke which is named after the local sandstone. It is a small boutique winery founded by the Judd family in 2009. Kevin was a major player in one of the area's founding wineries, Cloudy Bay, that put this region on the map 30 years ago. Greywacke is making some of the best wines in Marlborough.

By the way, Cloudy Bay, after which the winery is called, gets it name from the sea colour which sometimes in the right light looks a milky white due to the meeting of cold and warm water in this location.

After a brief tour and tasting we return to Blenheim for some shopping and a chance to wander around the town finding a bite to eat.

If there is time, there will be a side trip for those that are interested to the Omaka Heritage Centre on the outskirts of town which has a remarkable collection of airplanes from the early days of aviation.

We will then make our way to the Villa Maria winery to collect the winemaker who will take us on a tour of the region stopping at several of their vineyards in both the Wairau and Awatere Valleys, tasting at each stop wines produced from each vineyard.

 

 

We will start to understand the influence of climate and geography on the finished wine.

After a few hours on the road we will return to the winery for supper and tasting of more of the wines from their extensive portfolio. (B,D)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 8: Friday - Marlborough

Today is Waitangi Day. The National Day of New Zealand that marks the anniversary of the initial signing—on 6 February 1840—of The Treaty of Waitangi. This was an agreement towards British sovereignty by representatives of the Crown and indigenous Maori chiefs, and so is regarded by many as the founding document of the nation. Waitangi Day was first celebrated in 1934, and it was made a national public holiday in 1974.

We will participate as appropriate in these celebrations.

The plan at present is for us to start our day with a visit to the winery that produces the wine for Stoneleigh and Brancott wines. We start with a viticultural tour of their vineyards in the Marlborough region led by a viticulturist.

 

 

After the vineyard tour we return to the hotel and will be free to find a bite to eat.

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After lunch, we leave to visit another boutique winery owned by some more of the pioneers of this wine region.

Dog Point has a major connection with Cloudy Bay Vineyards that was established in 1985 by David Hohnen and is the winery that put Marlborough on the world map back in the late 1980s. The style of sauvignon blanc for which the region would become famous was developed by the winemaking team of Ivan Sutherland, James Healy, and Kevin Judd. Much of the fruit for Cloudy Bay’s celebrated sauvignon came from Sutherland’s personal property at the convergence of the Brancott and Omaka Valleys in the southern part of the region, which he and his wife Margaret purchased and planted in 1979.

Sutherland and Healy stayed at Cloudy Bay until 2003, when the pair left to launch Dog Point Vineyard. Today, their 100 hectares, including some of the original plantings, are farmed organically and hand picked (a rarity in Marlborough). Some of the fruit still goes to Cloudy Bay, but according to Sutherland and Healy, they (sensibly enough) keep the top, hillside vineyard fruit for Dog Point. The style is intense and edgy, with lots of lees contact and wild yeast complexity.

Dogpoint is today making some of the best wines in New Zealand from sauvignon blanc and pinot noir.

The Marlborough wine region depends on river water for irrigation. Vineyards are often located close to rivers with free draining old river bed soils.

 

 

After the tasting we return to the hotel.

We will spend the evening at a local restaurant tasting the wines of Stoneleigh whose vineyards we visited in the morning led by the winemaker. The tasting will be followed by dinner with Stoneleigh wines. (B,D)