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Le Tour de Marlborough.
After the breathtakingly beautiful, but woefully wet Marlborough Sounds, we headed south to the town of Blenheim, home of the world famous Malborough Wine region. Obviously, being such connoisseurs of the plonk, Jen and I thought we should be doing our share of wine tasting- so we did, by bicycle! After various escapades throughout Asia with child-sized adult bikes, I (M) was pleased to be given a trusty stead that actually fitted me, and a helmet too (its the law over here, don't you know). First stop on this tour of world class vineyards: the boutique chocolate factory (guess who was leading the pelaton there then!). Back on the road for a short second stage (aprox 2 mins), where we stopped off at the Saint-Clair vineyard. 1st bottle purchased, a vintage drop of 2008 hot Chilli sauce- yum, i was having withdrawal symptoms. Stage 3 ended with us meandering the beautiful olive groves of Hunter's Vineyards before sampling a large range of their best wines. We were educated in the history of the region's wines and informed about all sorts, from corks vs screw caps to beautiful nose and long legs. In this time, Jen developed a taste for the expensive stuff, and decided she could get quite into this wine malarky ("Marky, tell your Dad to get the good stuff in for me!). After an hour of tasting and talking legs, stage 4 took a somewhat slower, less direct route, to Cloudy Bay. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the hostess who asked us would you like to try our range (waving accross all 10 bottles). Lunch (of the packed variety- we're not that raa) followed on the garden outside the vineyard, before embarking on Stage 5, the epic journey across the road to Scott Family Vineyards. At this point, a prolongued fresh-air interlude was required so Jen and I headed to the Garden, where we played a game of 'giant' chess (giant = Pezza size). Thankfully, I can blame the extra glass of Pinot Gris for making my head cloudy and the resultant chess loss! Stages 6-9 are not 100% crystel clear, but we believe it took us via a liquor tasting boutique (plus a chocolate brownie energy boost for one of our tour team), a very prestigeous spakling-wine manufacturer (12th in succession Champagne dynasty ra ra ra), and finally a lovely Kiwi-French family vineyards. I say Finally, it was pretty final, as we squeezed in seconds before the lady put the closed sign up at the end of the day. Our final stage was a long ride all the way home with a particularly sobering headwind. No
Champs-Elysees and a distinct lack of a sprint finish, but the welcoming sight of our little van, a tastey dinner and some well earned zzz's rounded of le Tour nicely.
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