Martinborough Madness

Andy and I decided to take a Friday off a couple weeks ago and make it a three-day weekend so we could head to Martinborough for two nights. The last time I’d been was in June so I was excited to see it in the spring. We found a nice house to rent right in town and headed out of Wellington on a beautiful Friday morning. We made the drive in no time and checked into our cute place in the early afternoon.

I want to live in this house. So cool.

We relaxed for a bit before walking around the corner into Martinborough’s central square for some late afternoon beers in the sunshine and dinner at The Martinborough Hotel.

The next morning, we got up early and had a delicious brunch in town before heading out to get our rental bikes around one o’clock. Most of the wineries here are within a short enough distance of one another that it’s easy to reach a lot of them during an afternoon. Our luck with weather continues, and we had another glorious spring day for our vineyard touring.

We visited a couple of our favorites for tastings first, Margrain and Ata Rangi.

I love the wide open countryside in this part of NZ.

We decided to head down to the end of the road and visit Te Kairanga before our 3:00 dining reservation at Poppies.

We enjoyed a glass of wine on the porch while a bachelorette party took over the lawn. Martinborough, understandably, is a popular place for wedding parties.

Next up was Poppies. We’d planned ahead and booked in this time, since the other times I’d been here, it was always packed.

They do an amazing sampler plate that changes based on the seasonal ingredients. Just looking at the picture makes me want to go back right now.

Yum! We enjoyed our food, wine and amazing views of the vineyards from our table on the lawn. Couldn’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon.

Before we biked off, Andy had to pose in this sweet ride that’s always parked outside Poppies. Go speed racer!

We decided to hit one last vineyard before heading back to our house.

Colombo happened to be on the way, and neither of us had been before. It turned out to be pretty amazing.

Who could possibly ask for more than beanbags, delicious red wine and spring sunshine?

After finishing our vino, we had a low key evening relaxing at our house. Martinborough has to be one of the best places close to Wellington for spending a chill weekend.

The next day, we were off to the Putangirua Pinnacles, which I’ve been wanting to visit for ages. More to come on the next blog when we visit the real live Paths of the Dead from Lord of the Rings.