Breakfast at the Olde Mill with the other guests was most interesting! One of the couples was from Lithuania and the other from Canada. They were traveling south to north and since we travelled north to south, we shared stories. I gave the Canadian couple by NZ Frenzy North island book- one less thing for me to lug around. Mac and Janice were wonderful hosts this morning serving homemade muesli, toast, fruit and local marmalades and honey. Honey has become a big product here in recent years. And we are reminded that bees were also brought here by foreigners- they aren't native.
After breakfast we got prepared to do some biking and wine tasting. We ended up tasting wine at four different wineries, passing by over 14 wineries and traveling about 15 miles by bike in a head wind. We didn't mind however, because it was a gorgeous day with the sun shining. We visited Gibson Bridge winery- very small husband and wife operation producing 2500 cases to a large mass produced winery Alan Scott with large exports primarily to the U.K., Australia, Papua Guinea airport, and locally. We had to stop by the Forrest winery, and tasted "Bubbles for Beth"- no lie! It was owned by John Forrest and his wife Bridgett. Here we had 6 samples from a sparkling wine, Rose, Chenin Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Noir and Doctor's Laurent. We tasted sparkly, white to red.And we also visited Bladen winery where the brother of the owner, John, was such an informative person. He taught me how to use the spittoon for wine tasting, and it really helped differentiate the flavors on my palette. Forrest has a much better sense of taste than I so didn't use that technique much. Tonight we walk back into town for dinner in the local pub.
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