Wairarapa small towns

The advertising says, "Bring your appetite to Martinborough".  Unfortunately we arrived with ours mid-afternoon on a Sunday when the recommended eating place was closing so we settled for browsing a dress shop which had some interesting art on display, a kitchen wares shop, a wine shop and a cosy little bar.

Martinborough Hotel on the corner

Martinborough's other claim to fame is its vineyards and we sampled a lovely rich red.  I must return in summer sometime and visit some of those vineyards which are within walking distance of the quaint village square. Some of New Zealand’s best pinot noir comes from the town’s predominately family-owned vineyards.

Another of the small Wairarapa towns, Greytown has architectural charm and we enjoyed a stroll up and down the length of the main street with its excellent examples of Victorian colonial architecture.  It's New Zealand's most complete street of wooden Victorian buildings and is a favourite weekend getaway for Wellingtonians.  

I was most impressed by the huge Eucalyptus tree which stands outside one of the churches.  It was planted there in 1856 after being carted in a wheelbarrow from Wellington.  (Love a tree with a back story!)

Greytown really is a pretty town and is often described as the prettiest town in the North Island.  It's shopping heaven, with the street lined with  clothes, shoes and homeware shops, quirky antique stores, art shops and bric-a-brac.  Each shop reflects the personality of its owners, some being the odd side of quirky I thought.

We returned a couple of days after our first stop to visit the Schoc Chocolate factory and Cobblestone Museum.  I can close my eyes and imagine myself back there exploring my personality though chocology.   True, that's what the brochure says I was doing.  I'd be awfully ill if I explored in depth with all 85 flavours.  That's the chocolate shop on the right in the shadow of the tree below.  It stands on the edge of the museum grounds. 

Little chocolate factory on the right

The museum was excellent, far exceeding my expectations.  It's laid out as a small village with a schoolhouse, hospital, chapel, stables, blacksmiths etc. and a plethora of artifacts.  There's lots of variety - shearing shed, ploughs and farming and road making equipment, as well as a couple of houses moved there from their original locations.

 Old sheep shearing machine

Driving to Wairarapa

It was a long drive for Chris this year for our mid-winter break.  If we had taken the shortest route it would have been 1,550 km each way but we went the long way in both directions.  Via Napier on the east coast on our way south and via Te Kuiti in the west on our return.  We stayed the first night in Taupo and our last night in Taumarunui, with four nights in between in Carterton.  We were happy with our decision to stay in Carterton as it is pretty central to all Wairarapa towns and we had a very comfortable unit in the Carterton Holiday Park.

Early morning at Carteron Holiday Park on the one morning when there was no frost

GB's old stomping ground of Napier.  

 A scene GB will recognize - and a great place for a late lunch

 Hastings

Between Taupo and Napier Chris followed a sign to a lookout which, to our initial disappointment, was shrouded in fog.  Luckily we could just see the Waipunga Falls and decided that the mist added rather than detracted from them.  

Fog once again descended upon us further south until we could barely see 100 metres in front of the car.  

It lifted in some places, just enough to give what I thought was a rather romantic hue to the scenery.

 

 

Tomorrow I'll sort through my photos for some around Wairarapa.  

A few from the Wairarapa

I managed to get a few fence shots during this past week while I was in the Wairarapa.

Here are just a few, mostly just ordinary farm fences. The first two are from the car window looking towards those mountains that I loved.

This wonderful creature would never be contained by any fence.  It wasn't all that late in the day but the fog was descending. 

 Fences down an alleyway in Carterton where we stayed.

 Linking to Gosia's Fences around the World.