Wine on 2 wheels

We hired bikes for the day today and spent the day cycling around, visiting some more of the Marlborough vineyards. Solana was comfy in a trailer on the back of my bike and we managed the cycling OK, despite neither of us having ridden a bike for a number of years (it is, of course, like riding a bike!). We visited 6 different wineries in all and we tasted some of the wines at each of them, making a few purchases to fill our panniers along the way. The scenery was lovely too, riding past the vines, some of which were full of ripe grapes and others had been picked already. The weather is about to turn colder and rainy from tomorrow, so many of the vineyards are rushing to get the grapes picked before the rain sets in; we even saw some of the grapes being harvested today. We also stopped for lunch at one of the wineries - enjoying another delicious platter of seafood, charcouterie and cheeses, whilst Solana enjoyed a "bratz platter" (the kids version). We have now spent over our budget almost every day in the past week, so we'll need to find some cheaper/free activities in the North Island - some of which will happily involve sipping our way through the healthy wine stocks we have gathered over the past few days....Read more