We stopped to visit Chris, a friend of his who runs Kereru Brewery in Silverstream. This guy started small, had moved to intermediate, and was now in the process of renting a large warehouse and putting in giant brew kettles. At his house in a small lower room, however, which was still the current brewing site until the other place was finished, was lots of brewing equipment, boxes of beer and bags of ingredients.

The current brewery

The labels

We talked about beer, brewing, and all things related for a while, then bought an assorted 6-pack and headed off though the hills to Martinborough.

After checking into one of the cottages at Waituna Farms, which we actually found quite easily but were convinced we had missed, we went into the town of Martinborough to sample some wines. The specialty of the region was pinot noir, so that's mostly what we tasted, although there were some chardonnays and even a dry riesling and a stunning gewurztraminer.

The vines. The pinot noir grape is very small compared to other grapes

We sampled wine at Muirlea Rise and Martinborough Vineyard, then had some lunch at the cafe at Margain Vineyards and before doing our final tasting. Many of the smaller wineries were closed or only open for very limited hours. But that was ok since we had enough other choices.

We headed back to the cottage and had a wonderful evening sitting on the back deck taking and sampling the Kereru beer, some smoked brie, bread, kiwis and dark chocolate. We then walked over and took a long soak in the hot tub behind the farm. It was dark by the time we walked back. I had brought my headlamp but the batteries must be low for it was nothing more than a dim firefly. It was wonderful seeing all the different stars. Orion was facing upside-down and Regan pointed out the Southern Cross. We spent several more hours talking and I didn't get to bed until 3 am.

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