New Zealand

Day 1.

From Auckland take a short ferry ride to Waiheke Island. Stay for two nights and discover some of the most stunning boutique vineyards New Zealand has to offer. This island is dotted with olive groves and vineyards, beautiful beaches and surrounded by the off shore islands of the Hauraki Gulf.

Day 2.

Stay on Waiheke Island.Waiheke is the glamour destination for wine buffs. There are plenty of organised tours. Waiheke is the glamour destination for wine buffs. There are plenty of organised tours. Some of the newer wineries have fantastic restaurants, recommended are Mudbrick and Te Whau.

Day 3.

Return to Auckland by ferry and take a domestic flight from Auckland airport to Gisborne. Pick-up a rental car at the airport. Gisborne bills itself as the ‘chardonnay capital of New Zealand’ – and it’s easy to see why. Freshly scented, ripe-tasting and rounded, Gisborne chardonnays can offer delicious drinking only six months after they were a bunch of grapes. Accommodation for the next 2 nights is at Big Tree Hideaway.

Day 4.

The notable feature of Gisborne chardonnay is that it is delicious young. Because the region is so warm and sunny, the grapes ripen to high sugar levels with low levels of acidity, producing a full-bodied, soft wine style. Gisborne chardonnay can knock your socks off when it is only six months old, although the best examples will also mature well for several years. Gisborne's top winery, The Millton Vineyard, is famous for being the first vineyard in New Zealand to be certified organic. It uses no herbicides, insecticides, systematic chemicals or artificial fertilisers. Millton wines can also stand on their own two feet on a quality basis. Most years they make the country's best chenin blanc and some outstanding chardonnay. Ten years ago they finished 1-2-3 in Britain's National Organic Wine Fair. A visit to Millton is an absolute must for wine tasters, and while you're there, take a stroll around Annie Millton's delightful herb garden. Tucked away in an isolated but beautiful corner of New Zealand, Gisborne is truly worth the effort to visit. Down in the wharf area there are clusters of very good restaurants, including The Works café, housed in a brick freezing works built in 1906 and now transformed into a popular restaurant and cellar door for the Longbush winery.

Day 5.

Travel south to Napier. Some of New Zealand's earliest table wines were made from classic grape varieties by wealthy Hawke's Bay farmers during the 1890s, at a time when others were making rough fortified wine. Hawke's Bay makes many of the country's greatest chardonnays. Go out to the coast at Te Awanga, have lunch at Clearview Estate and try their power-packed Reserve Chardonnay. But watch your step - the owner boasts its alcohol level is never below 14 percent, which reflects how ripe the grapes get. After lunch, go for a long stroll along the beach. Few would disagree that Hawke's Bay makes New Zealand 's best merlot-based reds. You can buy some excellent reds here for $20. The other exciting red wine is syrah – dark, robust and spicy. Stay the next 2 nights at Cobden Villa

Day 6.

Te Mata Estate planted its first vines in 1892, after the owner's interest in wine was sparked by a French guest. The old brick stables, erected in 1872 and later converted into a winery, are still used today for cask storage. Mission Vineyards is New Zealand 's oldest surviving wine producer. More than 150 years ago, French missionaries of the Catholic Society of Mary planted their first grapes in Hawke's Bay, to make sacramental and table wine. Excellent wine still flows there and each year the Mission is also the venue of a popular international concert. Just along the road, the Church Road Winery (belonging to Montana) houses New Zealand's best wine museum.

Day 7.

Domestic flight to Blenheim/Marlborough. The statistics tell the story. Forty-five per cent of the country's vineyards are planted here, and in some years over half of all New Zealand wine flows from Marlborough. More than 50 per cent of the country's wine exports are of sauvignon blanc grown in Marlborough. The region has a unique combination of climate and stony soils that has proven to be perfect for the sauvignon blanc grape. Although it is hot and sunny during the day, the nights are cold, even in mid-summer, which intensifies the grapes' aromas and flavours and preserves their crisp, natural acidity. Stay at Peppertree Lodge for 2 nights.

Day 8.

But it's not all sauvignon blanc here. A major new source of excitement is pinot noir. Montana, which grows most of its pinot noir in Marlborough, claims to be the biggest producer of pinot noir in the world. Other successful varieties and styles include riesling (medium-dry and honey-sweet), chardonnay, pinot gris, gewürztraminer and distinguished sparkling wines, such as Daniel Le Brun and Pelorus, from Cloudy Bay. Most of the producers are clustered in the Wairau Valley, where many operate vineyard restaurants. Among the best known are Hunter's and Allan Scott's Twelve Trees Vineyard restaurant. Herzog is owned by a couple who founded a Michelin-rated restaurant in Switzerland, before they upped anchor and came to Marlborough. Now they make a small volume of powerful, concentrated wines and run the most sophisticated restaurant in the region, with an incredibly impressive wine list.For a magical place to relax, I enjoy Highfield, which offers sweeping views across the valley from a Tuscan-style tower and excellent wines.

Day 9.

Travel an hour and half south to Kaikoura - The Store at Kekerengu is a worthwhile stop, delicious food and coffee served up with a view of the rugged Pacific coastline as a backdrop, it has to be one of the best sited restaurants in the country. The beautiful seaside town of Kaikoura is a whale-watching paradise and is named after the prolific crayfish which live in its waters.You can stop off at a roadside stall and buy a cooked crayfish to eat on the beach! Stay at Miharotia in Kaikoura.

Day 10.

Travel 2 hours south to Christchurch - you have the option of driving down the coast and through very lush rural landscapes or if you have spare time, go inland and include a visit to Hanmer Springs, a thermal resort set amongst the foothills of the Southern Alps. Stay in Christchurch tonight, Canterbury's English-influenced main city with a sophisticated selection of restaurants and cafes, we recommend The Curators House, Hays in Victoria St, Annies Wine Bar and Saggio di Vino. Stay at Hadleigh, a beautifully restored Arts and Crafts Homestead close to the city centre.

Day 11.

Travel south to Oamaru, a 3 drive away and gateway to the Central Otago area. Stay at Tokarahi Homestead.

Day 12.

Travel to Alexandra, Central Otago. Central Otago, New Zealand's fastest growing wine region, boasts the southern most vineyards in the world. The Alexandra area is also known for its stone fruit and the orchards in the area are a mass of blossums in the Spring.Stay 2 nights in Alexandra at Rocky Range Lodge

Day 13.

Central Otago's vineyards lie in four distinct sub-regions - the Gibbston Valley, near Queenstown; Wanaka; Alexandra; and the Cromwell Basin (where two-thirds of the vines are now clustered.) The majority of the vines are pinot noir. Nowhere else in New Zealand is there the same emphasis on a single variety.

Day 14.

Travel to Queenstown. Central Otago's first wines were produced in the 19th century and sold to gold miners, but the early industry did not survive. The modern era began in the late 1970s and early 1980s, around Lake Wanaka and Queenstown, when Rolfe Mills of Rippon Vineyard, Alan Brady of Gibbston Valley Wines and others experimented with grapes.Spend the next 4 nights based at Shotover Lodge in Queenstown where you can relax, explore the area and take a flight down to Milford Sound.

Day 15.

Today Gibbston Valley is New Zealand's most visited winery, each year attracting 80,000 tourists. A 20-minute drive from Queenstown - the 'adventure capital of the world' - Gibbston Valley is an adventure itself. Burrowed 50 metres into the cliffside is a tunnel used to store barrels of maturing pinot noir and chardonnay - it's a highly romantic spot for tastings. If you're claustrophobic, stay outside and enjoy a great lunch in the winery restaurant. If you're feeling especially courageous, you can bungy jump off a nearby bridge that spans the Kawarau River.

Day 16.

Many overseas visitors demand to taste the pinot noir made by international movie star, Sam Neill, who produces his Two Paddocks wine from vineyards at Gibbston and Alexandra. Neill is deeply involved in the Central Otago wine industry, and he's now making one of the better wines in the region. His friend, Hollywood director Roger Donaldson, owns a vineyard next door at Gibbston, making wines under the Sleeping Dogs label.

Day 17.

Depart Queenstown or continue to stay.