Today I drove through the rain (Autumn is turning to winter today) back to Auckland. Tomorrow I'm heading over to Australia to Melbourne for the weekend to visit my besties Pam & Kul who moved out here 4/5 years ago - yea!

My flight is at 6am so am in a motel by Auckland airport for the night. located between the car hire drop off office & the motel is the Villa Maria Winery....New Zealand's most awarded winery!

After a walk round the vineyards I got to taste 6 wines, mainly whites, mainly Chardonnays of some variety and mainly I'm not a fan of them! I did have some of the Malbec which was v nice, but because Malbec grapes don't grow so well in NZ, and it's not particularly popular in NZ they don't make much of it, what they do make is $60 a bottle! Their Cab-Sav I bought in the supermarket for $14 the other night was v nice too,and much more in line with my budget so will perhaps stick to that!