Chapter 7: Picton & Marlborough Wine Tour [New Zealand Series 17/18]

Location: Picton and Blenheim

Hostel: Sequoia Lodge Backpackers, Picton

To do: Marlborough Wine Tour

Getting to Picton from Blenheim is pretty straightforward, you just have to get on a ferry and off you go. Unfortunately for me, my ferry was massively late which means I only got to Picton at around 1am. Fortunately for me… Kiwis are the best people I’ve ever met and there was specific transport waiting to take everyone to their hostels/hotels. My hostel was prepared for my late arrival and left me everything I needed (door codes etc.) in an envelope waiting for me.

I eventually managed to go to bed at 2.30am knowing I’d have to be up at 8am to go on my Wine tour. What I didn’t realise is that an all day Wine Tour, regardless of how much you eat, will definitely get you drunk (unless you spit all the wine, which I obviously didn’t do).

So there I was… on my own… with three couples….on a wine tour heheh. And it was bloody brilliant. Definitely recommend you do it if you want to learn a bit more about the Marlborough Wine region.

Below is a map of the region and I reckon you could easily spend a good 3/4 days here just tasting wine. Thankfully there’s 1 day tours that drive you around so you don’t have to worry about getting home. We did see some crazy rebels cycling around the area while doing a few tastings which I’m very unsure about…but oh well…. it is New Zealand =p

On my trip we went to:

• Lawson’s Dry Hills
• Seresin State (my favourite – ‘farmed embracing organic an biodynamic principles)
• Saint Clair (really good as well!)
• Hunter’s Wines
• Nautilus Estate
• Allan Scott Family Winemakers

In each one of them we tried at least 5 different wines…. so you can imagine my state by the end of the day…

I got to my hostel at 5pm and tried to stay awake which I obviously couldn’t. I then woke up in the middle of the common room of my hostel when everyone was having dinner…

What can I say….classy girl *wink*

I ended up meeting some people and going out for a drink at Seumus’s Irish Bar, which had live music that night. I was still drunk and could have gone straight to bed, but it was nice to hang out with people from the hostel and enjoy my first night out in New Zealand.