One of the most trendy wine tourist destinations today is New Zealand. So if you are about to embark on a vinous experience on the long narrow islands that the indigenous Maori call Aoteoroa, Land of the Long White Cloud, here are some tips.

A Distant Land

New Zealand is fairly isolated in the southern Pacific Ocean. You may be able to hitch a ride on a cruise ship but allow 3days from the east coast of Australia. Most tourists arrive by Auckland International Airport. It’s a 3-hour flight from Sydney and a 12-hour direct flight from Singapore or Los Angeles. With the travelling time to the airport at your end, the time it takes to check-in, the journey itself and the customs and immigration formalities when you arrive, you will have spent quite a few hours in transit before you step foot on New Zealand soil. So if you’ve come from afar, you will quite probably be experiencing ‘jetlag’ although you may not know it.

Down under and back to front

If you are from the top hemisphere it will be the opposite season when you arrive. It may take a moment or two to adjust to the climate. And you’ll notice when you visit the bathroom that the water swirls down the basin the wrong way.

What will you do when you arrive?

Do you really want to get onto another plane or pick up a rental car and drive for hours to start your whirlwind ’see as much of New Zealand as you can’ trip in the 7 or 10 days you are here. “Yes, yes, yes”, I hear you exclaim.

If this is your first trip down under, think again. Auckland is a beautiful city and there is plenty to see and do, including a choice of five wine sub-regions, so why get into a rental and drive away the moment you get here? And if you are from the American or the European continents, don’t forget that we drive on ‘the other side’ of the road.

You’ll also soon realise that New Zealand is not as small as it looks on a map. You’ll find it takes longer than expected to get to places and some of the routes are hilly and winding with freight trucks on the major routes to contend with.

Where to first?

Everyone wants to go to the glamour wine regions, in particular Marlborough, home of famous Cloudy Bay, or Central Otago where the scenery makes you draw breath in amazed awe. But New Zealand’s wine regions extend from almost the tip of the North Island to the deep central south of the South. It’s a land of vinous diversity and extremes. So in your eagerness to get to the places you have read about, don’t neglect the rest. You may be surprised in what you find.

Get a map

Plan if you can. Every wine region of some size should have vineyard maps detailing the opening hours of the wineries that are open to the public. Most regional maps are available online so you can check opening hours of the wineries and if there is any particular one you want to visit that is not normally open, ring or email in advance to arrange an appointment.

Check the distances

Plan your route carefully. In some regions, the wineries are quite close together, but in others, you may drive far from one to the next.

Great Expectations

When the writers for the influential media are invited to New Zealand, they are treated like royalty. These visits are pre-arranged and the top wines come out of the cellar. They visit wineries that may not be open to the public and taste wines the normal wine tourist may never see.

Tasting Wine

Wine tasting is a privilege not a right (or so they say – although personally I think you should be able to try before you buy if that is indeed your intention), so do not be offended if you are asked to pay for tastings. This is becoming the norm, especially in popular tourist regions. When you taste, remember it is wine and wine contains alcohol. Keep this in mind, especially if you are driving. Responsible hosts should provide spittoons. If they do not, ask for one. If they still will not oblige, take your wine outside and spit it out on their path, on their garden, on the wheel of their car, or wherever. Take heed that the upper legal limit for alcohol is 80 mgs of alcohol per 100 mls of blood or 400 microgrammes per litre of breath on a breathalyser.

Buying Wine

Buy the odd bottle of wine. Though it will not be practical to buy a bottle at every winery you visit, you may want a bottle to take to dinner or a ’special’ bottle to take home. But don’t take coals to Newcastle. Ask the producer if their wines are available where you live before you buy.

Keep tuned into Sue Courtney’s Travels with Wine for all the New Zealand tips so rather than just one or two highlights, you will have your days filled with enjoyable memories.

© Sue Courtney, April 2008