The next destination of our adventure was Bleinheim, a small town in the heart of Marlborough wine country in the South Island.  Although our original plan was to only spend one night here, once we discovered how beautiful the area was, with tons of wineries to visit, we decided two nights would do. 

We immediately booked a wine tour for the following day through Bubbly Grapes.  When the driver arrived at our hotel to pick us up, she informed us we would be getting a private tour, since no one else had signed up that day.  So, we had Kerry, our driver, and 5 hours to see and go wherever we wanted to in the Marlborough wine region - we were certainly not going to complain about that.

An interesting part about having a "private tour", was that Kerry was with us the ENTIRE time.  She escorted us into the wineries, stood close while we sampled the wines, and even sat with us while we ate.  At this point in the trip it was welcomed company, however Jason and I definitely noted how some people, possibly on a romantic afternoon in wine country may have looked at it differently.

The absolute funniest part about our "wine tour", was that our fearless driver had very little knowledge about wines and the wine country.  She even admitted to rarely drinking wine, which we found to be interesting.  None-the-less, we had a fabulous time, thanks to the wonderful Savignon Blancs, Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs of the region - these are the wines most predominately produced in Marlborough.

Lets just say after the 6 wineries we hit up, we certainly had that "tingly" feeling our driver hoped we would by the end of the day. . .