Friday night I decided I wanted to visit Martinborough and bike the vineyards. I bugged my friend Liz about it and she was easily convinced. We were going to take the train, it was going to be delightful. Saturday night I saw my friends Nessa and Mariol and asked if they wanted to come along. Problem was, it was around 10pm the night before and I was realizing that public transportation didn't get us quite where we needed to be. I was going to give up, but Liz rallied, convinced me we should just rent a car, and so we did. In the end, that was the better option anyway.
So after a scattered early morning text session about whether there were enough rental cars, how to get there, etc. we were off. I was nervous about driving on the left, but it was easier than I expected. It just required a lot of concentration. Like the equivalent of driving a bumper car or a moving truck--lots in common, but you have to focus a little more.
We ended up visiting 4 wineries on tandem bikes. It was as fun as you're picturing right now. As you can see from this map, everything is very close:
So after a scattered early morning text session about whether there were enough rental cars, how to get there, etc. we were off. I was nervous about driving on the left, but it was easier than I expected. It just required a lot of concentration. Like the equivalent of driving a bumper car or a moving truck--lots in common, but you have to focus a little more.
We ended up visiting 4 wineries on tandem bikes. It was as fun as you're picturing right now. As you can see from this map, everything is very close:
The general vibe of Martinborough is very chill and not snobby. Each "cellar door" was completely different-- one had wine tastings served by a man in his work clothes who owns the vineyard, another brought us tastings out at picnic tables, another place had awesome food and the winemaker herself told us stories about each wine. And did I mention each place was $5NZD to taste all of their wines?