February 6, 2013 - Auckland is known as the city of sails and is nestled between 2 harbours. This is fertile volanic land that has much to offer. This is NZ largest and fastest growing city and has the largest number of pleasure boats of any city in the world. On this beautiful sunshiny day, we had scheduled to go on an Auckland Region Wine Tour. We drove for about 35 minutes to the first winery - Matua Valley Winery. Here 2 brothers conquered the fine wine frontier bringing the country its first sauvignon blanc. We were served 6 samples of wine and 6 cheeses to match the wines.
From there we drove about 5 minutes and went to Nobilo Winery. This winery was established in1944 and combined 300 years of tradition with innovative approaches to produce internationally acclaimed wines. We were greeted by a big blonde lazy cat (looked just like Sasha) laying in thedoorway when we entered. We sampled another 6 wines.
Our last winery was Soljans Estate Winery. These Croations brought winemaking to NZ.
We were given a tour of the grape vines and found that rose bushes were planted at the end of the rows. If the roses developed blight, then the grapes could be treated before they got too far for treating. After the tour of the vines and holding tanks, we sampled 6 more wines. All of this on 6 cubes of cheese and a few crackers - we needed food. We got back to the ship at 3:00 and went and found a bite. We hung out at the pool for awhile and then went to dinner (tried some kangroo), and then attended the show and enjoyed the music at the "Pig and Whistle"
Wine Bottles
Leaving Auckland
Kangroo wiht beetroot and potatoes
Dinner - waiters - John and Praven
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