Christmas in Marlborough

Your included flight departs Auckland mid-morning. We celebrate our arrival in Marlborough with a wine tasting and lunch at Brancott Estate and enjoy the expansive views of the Wairau valley. We visit the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre which features a large collection of First World War flying memorabilia before driving to Picton.

This evening we take a relaxed dinner cruise with wine included to explore the many bays and stunning beauty of Queen Charlotte Sound on a specially chartered boat. We return to Picton in the evening.

This morning we find out the history of the old sailing ship “Edwin Fox” at the exhibit on the Picton waterfront - from troop carrier to immigrant ship, even convict transporter. 

Then we take the launch to Lochmara Lodge Wildlife Recovery and Art Centre in a beautiful setting on the sound’s edge. Kakariki parakeets fly in for feeding and blue cod swim off the jetty. We lunch at the lodge, returning to Picton in the mid afternoon

We breakfast at our hotel and start our Christmas celebrations early at our private lunch with Bill and Margaret McHugh in their Picton lodge.

Later we drive the Grove Track, a favourite spot for holidaymakers to Anakiwa where Outbound Bound is located. Overnight at Scenic Hotel, Blenheim.

Our first stop is Peter Yealand’s winery to drive the perimeter of the vineyard to enjoy the views and Peter’s interesting philosophy.

We lunch at The Store and travel the new Kaikoura Coast highway. We stay two nights at White Morph Inn right on the beachfront in Kaikoura.

We visit Fyffe House, Kaikoura’s oldest house dating back to the whaling days of the 1840s and the seal colony nearby. At the new museum the “New Normal, the Kaikoura Earthquake Exhibition” looks at the quake’s impact on the community.

No visit to Kaikoura is complete without the stunning views and wildlife of the Peninsula lookout.

We drive back over the Hunderlee Hills to Amberley and the Waipara wine district where we stop for a wine tasting followed by lunch.

This  afternoon we continue on to Christchurch where we tour the city's rebuild zone before arriving at Christchurch airport for your flight to Auckland.