Tuesday 3 January 2006 – Masteron - Martinborough


Trip: Masterton – Carterton – Greytown – Featherston – Martinborough – Pirinoa – Whangaimoana – Pirinoa - Martinborough

End Mileage: 174727

Start Mileage: 174574

Distance Travelled: 153

Good night at the motor camp – not too many people in. We got up, showered, packed up, topped up the oil in BILITY and off we went just after 9am. Got to Carterton by 9:30am. Carterton is (apparently) the Daffodil Capital!

Stopped for breakfast about 10am just outside Greytown. As we hadn’t been able to find anywhere decent to park we parked out of the way in a car park for a garden centre and café!!! So I got the takeaway coffee (from Café Trends) and Rex did the bacon and bagels in BILITY. Bit cheeky but hey, we did buy something there as well. ;-)



Left Greytown at 10:30am for Martinborough. View driving into Martinborough.:


Oh dear, a vineyard… So first stop was Palliser Estate at 11am where Rex brought a Riesling. Then The Cabbage Tree Vineyard. Again a couple of the vineyards we wanted to go to were closed but we did find others open that made up for the closed ones.

Martinborough and Burnt Spur was good – where we managed some purchases.

Margrain was friendly and hard case. They didn’t seem to care if we brought something or not and were a bit surprised that we didn’t want to sample. One of the wines had cellar note of “get stuck into it”. So brought a bottle each of “Mad Red” from there, oh and a Riesling...

Next was Vynfields where we purchased “Mad Rooster”.

Also found Schubert where, oh dear, we purchased again (Tribanco and Dolce).

Stonecutter was open so we had a look in there – small but good. Rex got a Pinot Gris.

Lunch time already so off to The Village Café just off the main square – yummy home made sausages!

Next stop was the Martinborough Beer & Ales – well got to have something a bit different than “yet another winery”.

From there we headed off to Te Kairanga – Rex had purchased their Castlepoint Merlot back in Tinui on the road to Castlepoint the other day. We thought we’d better get something from the vineyard itself so there goes a box each of the three Castlepoint wines (chardonnay, rose, and merlot) into BILITY.

A quick shot of the shopping so far.


Hmmmm, the shower in BILITY is taking on a whole new function, as remember we were also purchasing tasting glasses at some of these vineyards. Then combined with the purchases in the Bay.


Since we had the time, as we’d started from Masterton we contacted Terry and Simon at their place in Whangaimoana Beach, figured out how to find our way there and visit. Oh look, though a couple of Vineyards on the way out there. We stopped at Coney and Murdoch James Estate. Coney was busy and noisy and Murdoch James had just had a bus load of people turn up on a “Hen Party”. We had a quick look at both places but didn’t buy anything, we are slipping.

Next stop Whangaimoana Beach, only one slightly incorrect navigational instruction but soon got that sorted and off we went. Great to see Terry and Si and of course the boys (Stimpy and Casper). We arrived just as Si was getting his home baking out of the oven (muffins) so had to have one (would have been rude not too).

Didn’t stay there too long as didn’t want to be too late back into Martinborough for the night but it was great to catch up with them and they of course then met Rex.

We got back to Martinborough just after 5:30pm and stayed at the Martinborough Camping Ground – awesome. It used to be the council camp but has been sold and is run by a youngish couple. The kitchen and ablution blocks have all been smarted up and are great. (www.martinboroughcamping.com)

We met up with a couple from the UK – she was out here working for a few months so her partner came out for a summer holiday and they had hired a Maui camper van to go around the place and from the sounds of things were having a great time – not at all difficult to comprehend. They were off back to Wellington the next day to deliver the van as it was the end of their holiday. Another couple were off tenting round the South Island. Great meeting people this way and finding out what they are doing/recommend and to hopefully help others out with ideas as well.

Martinborough Camp ground views, BILITY set up for the night.



View from BILITY.


An older camper van at the ground: Rex cooking in the kitchen:


Vineyards in the Martinborough area we visited:



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