Two Rows › Planning your trip
Three honest itinerary shapes
Use the tasting-flight tool on the homepage to find your starting point, then build from one of these three realistic shapes rather than trying to force a single perfect itinerary onto a trip that's really two very different regions.
1) Marlborough only — 2 to 3 days
Day one: Wairau Valley, three to four cellar doors, easy driving along State Highway 6. Day two: cross into the Awatere Valley for the cooler, more herbaceous style, with lunch back in Blenheim. Day three, if you have it: the Southern Valleys' smaller producers around Omaka, at a slower pace.
2) Central Otago only — 3 to 4 days
Base in Queenstown or Cromwell. Day one: Bannockburn, the warmest sub-region, for the region's most concentrated style. Day two: Gibbston, higher and cooler, plus its claim to New Zealand's first commercial Pinot Noir release. Day three: Bendigo, at the Clutha–Manuherikia confluence, for the southernmost-wine-region history. A fourth day covers Alexandra or the Wānaka basin at leisure.
3) Both regions — 6+ days minimum
Don't try to compress this. Spend 3 days in one region, take the connecting flight (there's no direct route; budget a genuine travel day around the roughly 2h25 flight time plus layover), then spend 3 more days in the other. Trying to squeeze both into fewer days just turns two wine trips into one long transit day with a bit of tasting on either side.
Rule of thumb: if your total trip is under 6 days, pick one region properly rather than rushing both.