Michael and I traveled to New Zealand as part of our 2007 career break. The following is an excerpt from our travel blog.
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The beautiful blue skies followed us up the coast as we made our way to the small town of Renwick. Many people who travel to the Marlborough wine country will base their wine tours out of the much larger town of Blenheim. But as Renwick literally sits in the center of the wineries, we thought it was much better suited for our needs.

There aren’t as many options for accommodation in Renwick but by far the most popular choice is Watson’s Way Backpackers. They offer a variety of sleeping options – from campsites and campervan parking to dormitory style rooms and private en suites. They also have a large kitchen and grill as well as picnic areas and a wraparound porch.

We spent our afternoon doing chores such as laundry and food shopping. After relying on restaurants for most of our meals we were ready for some home cooked burgers. And we had to load up on cheese and crackers for our wine tasting the next day.

Watson’s Way also rents bicycles for touring the wineries, and that was how we were going to get around. Unfortunately the blue skies that were to follow from the day before failed to keep their promise, and so we had a cloudy day ahead of us. But luckily the few sprinkles we did have did not turn into heavier rain. And so we set off on our self-guided tour.[singlepic=406,200,,,right]

The Marlborough region is known for their whites – particularly their sauvignon blancs – but the cool climate has also been beneficial for producing some very fine pinot noir. We were ready to sample them all.

That day we biked approximately 15km. (9.3 miles) and visited five wineries – mostly family owned. Forrest Estates – Framingham – Nautilus Estate – Wairau River – and Huia. And of course we picked up a few bottles along the way and enjoyed one over a delicious steak dinner back at Watson’s Way.

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