Another day in food paradise! I picked up my car and left a grey and windy Wellington behind and hit the road. After a particularly gusty drive through the rimataka ranges, I arrived at greytown for breakfast at the French baker - roast tomato tart and coffee! And sour dough for levin! The shops had great clothes and antiques to look at, but the only place I spent money at was schoc choc. New flavours to sample included curry and pappadom, rose and strawberry, and geranium chocolate. The curry was overpowering but the other flavours are coming back to Australia with me.
Onto martinborough, and many of the tasting rooms are open. I started at tirohana, and stopped for lunch - real handcut chips and salad grim the garden, with wine tastings. All wine is grown on the property, and the service is amazing - it's a family run business whose other job is movie production!
Next stop ata rangi, considered the best winery in the area and notoriously hard to get a tasting as they only open 2 hours a day - but worth the wait and I have a rose for dinner tonight. Then right out into the countryside towards palliser bay to Murdoch james, where I tried some very nice but expensive Pinot noir, and had a coffee for the road!
The road to Palmerston north and levin Is through sparsely populated rural country, and takes about 2 and a half hours. I reached my cousins house in time to see the girls ride their horses and then have dinner and a good catchup!