Wine Tasting and Bicycles

We were a little unsure whether to go camping due to the blip in the weather, however in the end we thought what the heck, Waipara is only an hour away if the worst came to the worst we could hop back into the car and head home to dry off! So Helen and Paul and Dan and I trundled off to Waipara, 4 bikes, two tents, sleeping bags, food and clothes, in fact to be honest not much was left behind!
As we neared Waipara it was apparent the weather was going to be anything but wet and cold, in fact there was a raging Nor'Wester and the sun was blazing! In fact we got to the campsite, set up camp and had to force ourserlves onto the bikes rather than sit out and sunbathe!

It was well worth the effort! The wind did make it hard and it was VERY hot but covered in sun cream, we were not going to be defeated! The thinking behind our little trip was to leave the cars behind and pootle from one vineyard to the next on our bikes! Thought we could work off the calories as we went! It was great and a fantastic way to take in the area and sample the fine produce! Bike one day, taste and select the wines then drive round the following day and purchase! Fantastic! All in all I think we sampled at 4 vineyards, Torlesse (Omihi Road), Mt Cass, Daniel Schuster and Pegasus Bay and also olive oils at the Athena olive grove. We were disappointed that more weren't open however it just means we'll have to go back!

The evening was spent enjoying the sun, eating drinking (purchased wines!) and playing cards and esting chocolate whilst dodging the enormous bugs! Paul seemed to clean up in the game of cards, however he was the one making the rules....hmmmm!

Sunday included Daniel Scuster and Pegasus Bay as well as buying at the vineyards visited on saturday! Lots of food, great wine, fantastic company and the most enormous storm on the way home! What a fab weekend!

And these are all the ones we got through!!!!!!