Martinborough

The center of town, Martinborough

This amazing place deserves a post all to itself.  We arrived in the adorable town of Martinborough knowing nothing more than there were some great wines to be tasted.  The town itself is pretty small, probably about 8 blocks total extending out from a central park area.  The wineries surround the city, 68 total, we only made it three.  Martinborough is known for its Pinot Noirs, my favorite grape so I was happy to hear it.  The wineries we went to were all small, family run and in some cases the wine maker himself was hosting the tasting.  The soil has a huge mineral content so the wines were all earthy and delicious.

Wine, wine everywhere

More wine

Happy Bee

We stayed in a campsite right next to a winery and just up the from the river.  After a long day of walking around and tasting we made our way to the river to put our feet in and cool off.  The weather on this trip has been magnificent.  It was probably near 80F that day, with a cool breeze blowing through just when you thought it was too hot out.

When we were ready for lunch we ducked into a little fish and chips takeaway and enjoyed the best fried food I have ever had.  It was just a little counter tucked into a shop so we took it into the park and enjoyed it in the sunshine.  I had been holding out on getting fish and chips until I found a really good one- there are takeaways everywhere here, this was worth the wait.  I would have taken a photo but well, I ate it all :)

Now we are in Wellington, we've rented a cute little flat for the next six weeks or so to really explore and enjoy this city.  I'll have more to post in a few days, since we are taking our time getting to know our new neighborhood and surrounding areas.  This city is beautiful, built on the harbor and set into a deep bay so there is water everywhere you look.  Our neighborhood is really cute, lots of townhouses and about 50 coffee shops, separated by cute little stores and pubs.  There is a local yoga studio that I am going to chat with today about teaching at while I am in town and there are even more yoga studios downtown that I've been in touch with.