We were warned that the four-hour drive from Tongariro National Park (home of Mt. Doom) to Wellington was mundane terrain with no interesting sights along the way. Well, we must say that New Zealanders are definitely spoiled. We were still quite impressed with the views as we drove up and down winding roads through a river valley system with steep slopes and razor-sharp ridges.
Although the sights along the way may not have warranted a long stop, I couldn’t resist making Jimmy pull the car over to get a better look at these cuties.
Lamb and sheep can be seen dotting the rugged landscape, and they make me seriously consider becoming vegetarian.
Wellington is a quirky little capital city, and we enjoyed wandering the streets, eating meat pies and Tim Tam- and caramel-smothered waffles, and taking in the scenic views for a couple days here before heading to Australia.
Our favorite stop in the city was the Weta Cave museum and studio tour, and after our journey through Middle Earth, timing was perfect to learn about the company that created the magic. Weta Workshop is the world-leading design and special effects studio behind the Lord of the Rings movies, Avatar, King Kong, and many others. We got to see some of the original props from the movies and hear stories about how the creators brought such incredible scenes and unique characters to life. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take photos through most of the tour, but we did get a couple shots of the life-size models for characters you may remember from Lord of the Rings.
While in Wellington, we also had another birthday to celebrate. For mine, we decided to do a quintessential Kiwi activity – biking around the vineyards. We took a train out to Martinborough in the Wairarapa Wine Region about an hour outside of Wellington. Here, twenty boutique wineries are located within a close distance for easy exploring by bike.
We spent the whole day pedaling from winery to winery tasting unique and delicious wines. The New Zealand wine market in the US is dominated by Marlborough sauvignon blancs, and to be honest, we are not big fans. A sip of these wines is reminiscent of chewing on freshly mowed grass, not our idea of a refreshing glass of wine. Give us something crisp with passion fruit aromas like the sauvignon blancs from other regions of New Zealand and now we’re talking. The small boutique wineries that we discovered in Central Otago on our last trip to the South Island and now Martinborough on the North Island have far better white and rosé wines, in our humble opinion, than the mass-produced wines of Marlborough.
We lunched at Palliser Estate and had a birthday toast with their outstanding sparkling wine.
In classic wine picnic style, we had delicious meat and cheese platters to pair with our wine selection.
Along with the sparkling wine, we were also impressed with the rosé and pinot gris at Palliser Estate. However, our favorite winery of all was Poppies. We loved that the winemaker herself poured the wine. Poppy is quite a character and passionate about her wine and sharing it with others. We obviously have a similar palette for wine as we loved everything she poured for us – her gewürztraminer, pinot gris, rosé, and late-harvest riesling were all fantastic. Poppies was our first stop for a tasting because a friend had recommended that we make sure to go there. However, we loved it so much that we came back at the end of our wine tasting day to enjoy a full glass of the pinot gris. On a warm summer day, you just can’t beat a crisp, cool glass of white wine while relaxing out in the vineyards.
I was quite giddy, especially after a handful of wine tastings, about our day pedaling through the vineyards. We couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate my birthday and end our New Zealand road trip.
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