Lake Domain Reserve, Lake Wairarapa

While visiting the Wairarapa, we stayed at the Lake Domain Reserve on the shores of Lake Wairarapa. It was a great base as we explored the area—reasonably close to Featherston and Martinborough.

There was so much room. Most people seemed to prefer to park under the trees, but we chose the lake views and the open ground. It can get quite windy here at the lake, but I think we were strategically placed so that the trees sheltered us a little, even though we were in the open.

Just outside our rig, between us and the lake, was a small area of flaxes and toi tois. These sparrows had plenty to sing about in the setting sun one night.

This is the view from just outside our rig. What you cannot see are the mosquitoes. Several of them committed suicide on our insect screens each night. Some of them, I am sure, managed to wiggle their way through the teeny holes on the screens. Each night we spent some time seeking them out before sleeping. It was just too hot to close the windows.

Looking back at the Domain from further around the lake. I was being harassed by millions of midges, so didn't stay too long in that spot.

In spite of harbouring the wee bugs whose mission in life was to eat us, Lake Wairarapa showed us some fabulous sunsets over the nights we were there.

If you cannot see "Post a Comment" below, click here (and scroll down to the bottom of the post) to talk to me!

Carterton Vineyards

While in Masterton, we stayed at the Solway Showgrounds. It's a beautiful place—grassy and plenty of space. They had showers and toilets available as well, all for $5 per person per night. If you want power, that's an extra $10 per night. 

Some of you know that Dave is working as a marketing manager for a Chinese company exporting NZ products to Chengdu, the capital of the province of Sichuan in southwestern China. Wine is one of the products they're interested in, and so he "needs" to research. And, of course, I must help him—a second opinion is always helpful. :) Today was the day we set aside some time for this task.

We found three vineyards east of Carterton that looked promising. All were small wineries. The first one was Gladstone Vineyard.

It was a little off the beaten track—about ten minutes east of Carterton.

Although it's just a small vineyard, they had some lovely wines—especially their Riesling and Pinot Gris. It was well worth the trip. This board described how they used cover cropping, worms and insects, etc. to do away with any need for pesticides.

The next vineyard we moved on to was Cottier Estate.

Their tasting room was in their lovely home, up a staircase to where there was a great view over the vines.

Being a hot day, it was lovely and cool up there with the windows all open. Again, we enjoyed some lovely wines, in particular their Pinot Noir. The photo at the beginning of this blog post is in that room.

The next winery was just down the road—Johner Estate.

We had to travel down unsealed roads to all three of these vineyards.

And lastly, we travelled back to just north of Masterton to Loopline Vineyard.

It's great meeting the people and chatting with them about their wines.

Our favourite was probably Gladstone, with Cottier Estate a close second.

We have a little more research to do when we get down to the Martinborough district.


If you cannot see "Post a Comment" below, click here (and scroll down to the bottom of the post) to talk to me!