I Love Schnauzers   My life with Schnauzers

Day 11 saw us heading out to Gibbston Winery for a tour and tasting. The Otago region, like the Willamette Valley in Oregon, is known for its Pinot and some Reisling. The dry mountain soil, cool temps and winds make for perfect conditions. Or so I’m told. Mommy doesn’t know much about wine. Mommy also doesn’t care for Pinot. But those in the group who do said they loved the Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir. Unfortunately for us, Gibbston doesn’t sell overseas. They are truly a New Zealand wine—you have to visit if you want to try it!

After wine, we headed a short way down the road to Arrowtown for a lite lunch and shopping. Arrowtown started in the 1860s after the discovery of gold in the area. In fact, many of the gold rushers here were 49-ers traveling from CA in search of gold. They brought with them the American woods needed to build, like Monterey pine, Digger Fir, and Giant Sequoias. These trees have since taken over, pushing out the native plants and beechwood. Our guide told us that all the beautiful fall foliage we see is “exotic”; that none of the native trees change color or lose their leaves. So you can see in these photos how much the landscape has changed since gold was discovered here.

   

   

   

In the evening we headed up the Queenstown gondola for our good bye dinner at the Skyline restaurant. The views were spectacular.

 
The next day we said goodbye to roughly half the group who headed home while the rest of us took off for Fiji for 3 glorious days of sun and sand!