The top of New Zealand's South Island is home to one of the biggest wine regions in the southern hemisphere. It's also the sunniest place in the country, has multiple National parks and amazing tramping tracks! Marlborough is the place to be.
As you can imagine, we loved the Marlborough region and we ended up spending a lot more time here than we initially envisioned. It really has a great combination of coastal beauty, inland mountains & forest mixed with easygoing towns and great food and drinks.
Arriving in Picton
After a stunning ferry ride from Wellington we arrived in Picton, a small but beautiful town, right in the Marlborough sounds. It's the main gateway to the south island, but often overlooked as a place to stay. It does however have some really nice walking tracks (for example Bob's Bay, the Snout trek or get started on the queen Charlotte track) and a laid back vibe. We stayed at Sequoia Lodge Backpackers, a really nice place with free chocolate cake & ice-cream every evening!
When in Marlborough, drink wine!
The Marlborough region is full of scenic vineyards that are especially famous for their Sauvignon Blanc. As a wine lover, I wanted to do some wine tasting and explore the beauties of this region. We decided to do the Hop on Hop off Wine tour from Picton. It's a bus service that drives you to all the vineyards so you can taste, while they drive. We booked it the Bookme app and got 50% discount! We stopped at the Wither Hills vineyards, Fromm, Cork & Keg and Framingham. For 5 to 10 NZ$ you could taste a variety of wines at each of those places. We especially enjoyed Wither hills and Framingham.
Nelson & the Great Taste Trail
From Picton it was a 2 hour bus ride to Nelson, a really nice city (or should I call it a large town..) where we stayed at the quirky Palace Backpackers! Nelson has plenty of nice bars filled with their yummy craft beers and has various day walks. We hiked up to the Centre of New Zealand, a nice lookout point, and as the name suggests, this is the central point of NZ. The Grampians should also be nice, but while we were there many tracks were closed due to extreme fire risks (there has been a drought).
So instead of walking we got some bikes from the hostel and rode the first part of the Great Taste Trail. A beautiful (and flat, yay!) bike trail that would take 5 days to complete in full. It goes along the coast past various breweries, vineyards and restaurants to eat your way through the day (although to be honest we did not pass so many establishments on our day trip). We did a beer tasting at McCashins brewery. Very tasty beers and we could see the bottling process through the window of the cafe. Really nice place to wind down before heading back to Nelson!
Stay tuned for the next blog on the Abel Tasman National park and other wonders of the south island!
Alex & Yvette
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