The drive from Napier to Wellington is about 4 hours, so on the advise of Ian, our guide through the Hawkes Bay wineries, we stopped about an hour outside Wellington at Margrain Vineyard. This is the Martinborough region, where Pinot is supposedly actually palatable (unlike the few Pinots we’ve had so far).
The wines were all quite good, and I think we had 10 of them, including a sparking wine. Their 2016 Reserve Pinot was the best we have had in NZ so far, and could “almost” be mistaken for a California Pinot…..almost. The tasting room manger, Kate, is a show on her own, and well worth the visit even if the wines were just ok. The winery doesn’t ship wine themselves, but a wine store in town does, so we ended up having a mixed case shipped home from there. The downtown area is like something you’d see in Mayberry RFD, or maybe the movie Pleasantville if you aren’t old enough to remember Mayberry.
I wish we could have hit more wineries, but we had to check in to Wellington at a decent hour so we could at least see part of the city, as we will only be here one evening. Martinborough is definitely on the list of “next time we are in New Zealand”, and I would give it at least 2 full days.
The drive to Wellington was uneventful. I had read from at least 2 sources to NOT DRIVE in Wellington, but it was really quite easy to get around, far easier than driving in San Francisco, so I’m not sure where that was coming from. There are numerous one way streets, but as long as you pay attention I prefer the one way streets to driving on the left side of the road. For once I can drive on the right! Little victories!
We took a walk around the waterfront, and let me just say, I’m getting particularly annoyed with the “scooter revolution” going on these days! Can’t anybody just fricking walk anymore? There are scooters to the left of me, scooters to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle again.
It appears Wellington has their own version of SF’s “Painted Ladies” with these houses along the shoreline.
This is quite the bizzare little city. There were a bunch of shipping containers lined up on the waterfront that were the focus of performance “artists”. We only saw one “performing”. It was a woman in a wedding dress on workout equipment. I think it was supposed to depict the plight of the suffering female, and the fact they have to keep looking good right up until the day they get married, after which they can pretty much super size anything they want. No hate mail from the ladies please….I’m simply exploring my artistic side! I didn’t take a photo….I was too unnerved by her “artistic” nature.
We saw this sign in a window. Despite my urges, we didn’t make the call. I really wanted to see what they could do for me!
Some interesting architecture on the waterfront. It’s a pretty city, despite the bizzareness.
Our hotel was also on the bizzare side. It is a top rated hotel on Trip Advisor, called U Residence, and the room was nice and comfortable, but it’s a hotel that has been set up on the 4th floor of an office building. The other 3 floors are businesses. While the accomodations were decent enough, there were tripping hazards galore! Just walking from the entry to the bed required a large step up, and it was not easy to see. Kim nearly ended our trip today on her way to make coffee. There is a balcony but they are half way through installing tile, and it looks like they stopped progress maybe two years ago, so it’s yet another tripping hazard. Glad were not old folks!
To top it off, it seems the teens in this town like to spend Saturday night drinking beer in a parking lot across the street from the hotel. There were at least 4 of them sleeping in their car as we left this morning, the ground littered with beer cans. This is their idea of fun?
Next up, the trip to the South Island.
