Central Otago Wine Country, New Zealand

Our trip to New Zealand was a series of unfortunate events, and the day we spent wine tasting on the South Island in New Zealnd is the story of making lemonade out of lemaons. We were supposed to go to Milford Sound, which is one of the things I remembered best from my first trip to New Zealand almost 40 years ago. We flew in, and it was memorably spectacular from the air, so that is how I wanted my spouse to see it too. We were also on a limited time budet, and it would allow us to not spend the whole day in the car getting there, and have time to explore the waterfalls and fjords that make it such a special place. When the weather forecast was that it was too foggy to fly, we pivoted to a wine tour--which would have been far cheaper than the flying was, except that at the very first winery they had free shipping to the United States, so we pivoted to making the day cost neutral and having something from the trip to enjoy at home. I would highly recommend this option and while I thought I didn't care much for New Zealand whites, it turns out I am not crazy about the New Zealand whites that are prevalent exports. We tasted some really delicious pinot noirs, roses, and sauvignon blancs and great fun while doing so. If we go back, we would purposely travel to wine country!