New Zealand Wine Tour

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New Zealand Wine Tour

New Zealand Wine Tour

New Zealand Vineyard Walk

An outside tasting

New Zealand Wine Tour

New Zealand sheep and vines

At a tasting

New Zealand Wine Tour

New Zealand Wine Tour

New Zealand Wine Tour

3 - 19 February 2007, 9 - 25 February 2008, 16 February - 1 March 2009

New Zealand offers any visitor enormous scope as it is a country blessed with spectacular natural scenery, clean air and open space, and we believe is the perfect place for a wine tour. Established wine regions are found on both the northern end of the North Island to the southern end South Island, so a serious wine tour in fact covers most of the country. The range of wines is outstanding in terms of quality and the vastly differing terrain and climate makes for a diverse range too.

For this wine tour we have selected good quality accommodation throughout the tour and there are many superb meals too at New Zealand’s top winery restaurants.

We begin our tour in Auckland. Auckland holds over half of New Zealand’s population and is a modern, vibrant harbour city with excellent restaurants, shops and cafés. The area is an important centre of wine production, and we visit the Huapai and Kumeu districts to the west of the city, as well as exploring Waiheke Island with its unspoilt beaches, stunning scenery and excellent wines.
Leaving Auckland, heading south, we will cover all the important wine regions, finally arriving in Queenstown on the South Island at the end of the tour. We will drop in on several smaller, isolated areas en route.

We head to Lake Taupo, New Zealand’s largest lake, via the Bay of Plenty, where we stay right on the shores of the Lake. For our next wine region, Hawke’s Bay, we will stay in the Art Deco city of Napier. We are here in the full swing of the Art Deco festival, which is one of the highlights of this holiday. To the south of Napier, at the foot of the North Island, we visit Martinborough, New Zealand’s premier Pinot Noir
region where there are several outstanding exponents of this notoriously ‘difficult’ grape. We then have a full day in the capital, Wellington, to explore the museums, botanical gardens and shops.

We cross from Wellington in the North Island to Picton in the South Island by ferry. Then on to Marlborough, NZ’s most famous wine region and renowned for its Sauvignon Blanc. Here we spend a couple of days exploring the region’s top producers, including, of course, the famous Cloudy Bay.
From Marlborough, we head down the coast on the Coastal Pacific Train which is considered to be one of the world’s most spectacular train journeys. We then spend a few days in Christchurch visiting wineries in the area. There is also time to explore Christchurch itself, which is very reminiscent of a 1950s English town.

From Christchurch, we fly to Queenstown and New Zealand’s fastest growing wine region - Otago - which is producing some stunning Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs and lately Pinot Gris. The tour ends here in Queenstown, the adventure sports capital of the world.

Extend your holiday

To the beautiful Bay of Islands; explore the glaciers of Mount Cook or fly home via the South Pacific, Hawaii or Asia. Please call us for more information.