After a wonderful night’s sleep in our Palmerston North B&B, we left in the rain and headed south in the direction of Martinborough, a wine growing area in the South Wairarapa District.

Our drive took us through the tip of the Tararua Range, where the landscape was awash with wind turbines running close to the main highway and towered over us as we drove by.

After a 90 min journey we arrived in the quaint town of Martinborough. Though small in size, it was huge in style, with a range of fabulous wineries all within a few miles radius of each other.

Our first winery stop was Luna Estate. There we sipped 5 wines from their winery, starting with a Sav Blanc, a crisp glass of Rose, an Eclipse Chardonnay, finishing with the local favourite, Pinot Noir, one Eclipse and a Blue Rock Pinot Noir, as we looked out towards seemingly endless rows of vines.

After our first stop at Luna Winery, we moved next door, a vineyard just 300m away called Poppies, which by a happy ‘coincidence’ was run by a lady called Poppy!

Poppy kindly met us in the tasting room and ‘an environment created to explore the imagination of the past’, her words not ours!

Simply put, they make wines they love and have created the environment we loved to to drink Poppies wines in.

Poppy kindly shared her veracious love of wine and we (Andy only, as Michelle was now driving) made his way through six small glasses of Sauvignon Semillon, Riesling, Rose, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and a Gewürztraminer.

After enjoying all six varieties, we plumped for our tried and tested love of Rose and purchased a bottle for further wine tasting over the next few nights!!

After our 3hr interlude in Martinborough for lunch and wine tasting, we made the final hours drive to our latest B&B in Silverstream, half an hour north of Wellington.

We got lucky, it’s a great place (with a washing machine) and within 30mins we had washed and dried all our formerly dirty clothes and we were back to full cleanliness!

We then made our way into the centre of Wellington to check out the waterfront and then on to Cuba Street for dinner, as well as a visit to the famous bucket fountain. Our drive into the city, ran alongside the railway and we spent part of the journey ‘racing’ a local train.

Once at the waterfront, there were a number of old Victorian Harbour buildings, alongside former storage sheds now being used by local designers for Maori street art.

The views out across the bay were glorious, sadly though the weather wasn’t and the bracing wind made for a cool early evening.

With our hunger pains rising, we wandered up Cuba Street and found a great local restaurant bar, catching the happy hour by a couple of minutes.

Post dinner, we returned down to the waterfront and checked out the ferry port where we will be heading on Saturday morning when we sail to Picton in the South Island.

With the wind up, the rain returned and we ended up running to the car to avoid a soaking. Once in the dry, a rainbow fittingly came into view on our drive back up to the B&B.

Tomorrow we have booked our customary walking tour gig in Wellington, then plan to check out the Cable Car & Cable Car Museum for stunning views of the city, as well as a visit to the Wellington Art Gallery, before finishing with Friday’s Night Market.