Cycling D'Vine

Today we hit the roads to visit some of the wineries of the hawkes bay region.

Of course, being consciences citizens, we didn't want to consume alcohol and drive so instead we decided to bike. Cycling the wine routes of this region is very common. There are hundreds of kms of limestone bike pathways that are safe from cars and appropriate even if perhaps you have over indulged a bit.

We rented a bike for SM from a bike shop in North Havelock. And from there we set out! Unfortunately we didn't plan our route very well.

Below is an ad for an upcoming wine cycle on Nov 4th. I can tell you that after our expedition we looked nothing like the two folks below. (Though perhaps "wheely glassy" would be an appropriate description.)

In one area we found three wineries, but to get to more It was about 18 km. Normally 18 kms isn't much, but after a few samplings it seemed like a long way. We did peddle on and visited three more wineries. At least the long cycle gave us time to digest.

Below are photos of a few of the wineries we visited. 

Black Barn. Kinda self explanatory.

Abbey Cellars. This isn't an old abbey of course, it's a purpose built winery made to look like an abbey, but quite nice though. 

Sileni. This is a very large facility, offering tours, a cafe, cheese tastings and olive oils in addition to a large selection of wine. SP found a bottle in just his size.

Sileni was also the official supplier of wine for the Auckland Triathlon. They have three different varietals each with a custom label celebrating NZ triathletes. Here we are getting a "triathletes in the store" pic with the wineries retail manager. Overall Sileni was a very nice visit.

Unfortunately I didn't get many photos of our favorite winery, Alpha Domus. It was probably the smallest one we visited. The wine was wonderful but just as importantly, they have a very cute dog. 

We managed ~ 50 km over 6 hours and 6 stops. It was a long day even for the triathletes on the light bikes, but SuperMom gets serious kudos cycling on a heavy rental bike. (And this is why we call her super.)