One of our most precious memories of the 2024 World Cruise is from Picton, where the Picton Flower Ladies met the ship and gave a small boutonniere of fresh flowers to each person that arrived. Not only is this a massive scale project – imagine volunteers, crafting small boutonnieres of fresh flowers for 2000 persons, but the generosity of this gift was beyond pale. So, we were cautiously optimistic that the Picton Flower Ladies would be here today – and they were!! Sharon could hardly wait to get off the ship to greet them and say thanks!

Picton, on the South Island of New Zealand, is the gateway to the famous Marlborough wine region and today we arranged a tour through Viator to visit four wineries that produce the famous Sauvignon Blanc wine. The Marlborough region has perfect conditions for growing this wine – warm days but not too hot, and cool evenings but not too cold. The volcanic dirt is also a plus and this region has built an industry that produces 350 million bottles of wine each year from 75,000 acres of vines. They export their wines all over the world but the Americans and Canadians have a real love of Sauvignon Blanc.

On our tour, we visited Whitehaven, Nautilus, Ant Moore and Johanneshof wineries. Each winery had a unique approach to Sauvignon Blanc, but only two had the official Sauvignon Blanc seal. The area is also known for their Pinot Noir and we sampled some very good ones. We had a yummy lunch at a fun restaurant, the Fancy Cow, part of the Ant Moore winery. Our final stop was the Makana Chocolate factory.

Picton is a small town with a big port. It’s fascinating to think of the big industries that utilize the Port of Marlborough; timber, wine and cruise passengers, each and every day, 365 days a year. We enjoyed the sail away through the narrow channel, out to the Cook’s Strait which divides the North and South Islands of New Zealand. We are traversing the strait tonight and will arrive back to the North Island in the morning.

Tomorrow: New Plymouth, New Zealand