Tauranga Tasting Tours & Charters

06/11/2024

We’re sad (and somewhat exasperated) that, after 25 years of dealing with the evolving businesses relating to Prestons’ Winery/Mills Reef Winery/Morton Estate Winery/ Leveret–Mills Reef Winery, that we’re no longer permitted to take our clients to Leveret–Mills Reef.
However, we’re excited that our new tours for both locals & cruise-shippers
- Our Local Tasting Tour https://secure.smore.com/n/swqr0-tauranga-tasting-tours , which includes a tasting of top NZ wines at The White House, Te Puna as well as visiting Salinity & The Rising Tide
- Our Bay of Plenty Tasting Tour https://secure.smore.com/n/vwy5r-tauranga-tasting-tours which includes a tasting & platters at Volcanic Hills Winery as well as the boutique brewery & Salinity, as above.
- Waikino Hotel, with a tasting of their award-winning spirits & liqueurs https://secure.smore.com/n/8ympn-tasty-tipplimg-at-waikino-hotel
- Our Kwizine to https://secure.smore.com/n/6gt2w-tauranga-tasting-tours which visits foodie venues from Katikati to Omokoroa & Tauranga
-are being received very well & proving popular. We continue enjoying & supporting local hospitality businesses as much as possible.

30/10/2024

Only 3 seats left!

The Festival of Flowers will be held 6-9 November in the Matamata/Piako Civic Centre. We will travel to the exhibition, Thursday November...

25/10/2024

Yesterday, Paul took a friendly group of six Americans on an altered Local Tasting & Kwizine Tour. Many had never seen kiwifruit growing & appreciated being told about the industry & given a taste of both the green & gold varieties.
Clients were able to choose 5 samples from various beer, gin & cider products at The Rising Tide. Some would have liked to have stayed there all day!
A fish and chip lunch at the Omokoroa Boat Club was thoroughly enjoyed.
They loved the great presentation & tasting by Tim at NZ Avocado. (Again, a client went up on the Hydralada & picked some fruit.)
A presentation & tasting by Paul of five quality NZ wines (plus cheese & biscuits) at White House, Te Puna, added to the groups’ enjoyment of a day well spent. sampling various aspects of NZ!
A trip up to the Minden Look Out’s panoramic view of the entire Coastal Bay of Plenty completed the tour, before returning the group to Trinity Wharf Hotel.

23/10/2024

The Bank Bar and Brasserie, in Hamilton was a great choice for our Sunday Lunch group, last weekend. The capable & friendly restaurant staff were more than happy to accommodate any requests both before & on the day. This historic ex-bank is a restaurant that has a reputation as an exciting night-club venue for the younger set, but they made us oldies very welcome! There was a really comprehensive menu at affordable prices. The food was tasty & delivered quickly.
For Bartercard members, this restaurant accepts Trade dollars.
Before going to the restaurant, a stop was made at Hamilton East Market & shops.
An enjoyable day out!

23/10/2024

We had two groups from the Celebrity Edge on Friday - one on our Local Tasting Tour & the other with Bron on our new Kwizine Tour which visits Katikati's BeeNZ & NZ Avocado Tours, a kiwifruit orchard to explain the industry from planting to export, The Omokoroa Boat Club for a fish & chip lunch, The Minden LookOut to see the great views, returning to shipside travelling alongside our wonderful Mt Maunganui Beach. One of the clients decided to go up as far as possible on the hydralada (extendable ladder) at the avocado orchard, We're sure he won't forget that!

21/10/2024

Sun's out! Time to enjoy yourself!

WED.,23 OCTOBER - THE NZ TIMBER MUSEUM PUTARURU We will visit the NZ Timber Museum, (including Trainworld (previously in Napier, but...

20/10/2024

We had a lovely group of young ladies celebrating a special event on our Local Tasting Tour on Saturday. Thank you for booking your Hens' Party with us, Jade Beaver. We send you every best wish for your wedding day!

17/10/2024

A new cafe, a rejuvenated Trainworld. This venue just keeps on getting better!

We will visit the NZ Timber Museum, (including Trainworld,previously in Napier, but now set up at the museum ), in Putaruru, Wednesday,...

14/10/2024

The cruise-ship season is nearly here & things are already extraordinarily busy.
Paul had a lovely couple of Australian ladies on our Local Tasting Tour visiting The Rising Tide, The Whitehouse Te Puna, Leveret Mills Reef & Salinity Restaurant, last week & we had a group of eleven Americans on a combination of our tasting & Kwizine tours – going to the winery, having a taste of & talk about kiwifruit, visiting BeeNZ, NZ Avocados, The Minden Lookout & having a Fish & Chip lunch at Omokoroa Boat Club. This Friday we have 2 groups off the Celebrity Edge – one going on the Local Tasting Tour & the other on the new Kwizine Tour, which is proving popular.
On Saturday, we have a Hen’s Party. Sunday we’re going to the Bank Brasserie in Hamilton for a Sunday Lunch & on Monday we again have clients for the Local Tasting tour from the Royal Princess.
The following Wednesday we’ll be heading to the Timber Museum in Putaruru.
Busy, busy!

13/10/2024

Only 4 seats left!

We'll plan to leave Tauranga, after pickups, by 9.30 so that we can spend time at The Hamilton East Village Market (or the Hamilton East...

13/10/2024

We started the last day of our Hawkes’ Bay Winery Tour with a very special boutique winery. Tironui Estate is between Church Road and Mission Estate Wineries. It borders Mission and overlooks it, with views out to Napier Hill and beyond to Cape Kidnappers.
Tironui is a small and very select vineyard. It produces a single vintage every year & does not produce if the grapes are not up to standard. There is no cellar door so we were received at the owner’s beautiful private residence. We enjoyed the excellent Roses, Merlot, Merlot Malbec Cabernet & Merlot Malbec – all extremely good wines.
This vineyard is a labour of love, Set on steep terraced hills, only a person or a miniature tractor can fit between the closely-planted vines. Personal care is the only possible way of pruning, picking etc., and this ethos of producing quality wines with personal input is evident in every delicious sip!
Our last visit before returning to Tauranga, was to Mission Estate. We had a competent presentation of Mission’s wines by Katelyn who is doing an oenology course locally. At the latter end of her studies she will have to choose between whether she wants to be involved in running a vineyard or wants to be a wine-maker. What wonderful options.
We then had a lovely 2-course lunch at Mission to finish the tour, before wending our way home.
Don’t forget that we can take you on your own winery tour to any region with your personally-selected group, as long as you have a minimum of eight people. Just get in touch!

11/10/2024

On Day 2 of our recent Hawkes’ Bay Winery Tour, two venues that we visited were boutique wineries that many won’t have heard of.
Hopesgrove Winery’s owners decided that they did not want to raise their children in the USA. On a visit to visit family (who had already shifted here) in 2002, they decided NZ was where they wanted to be & bought land nestled in the north-facing limestone hills just outside Pakipaki.
We had our tasting in a little building that had been bought for $1.00 & converted into a quaint, cosy cellar door. Atop a nearby hill was a church building that had been bought for $3.00 which, in the future, will be a larger cellar door with 360 degree views. (It helps that the wife concerned is an architect.)
We tasted outstanding organic wines & particularly liked the 2023 White Pinot, 2022 Estate Viognier & 2021 Estate Chardonnay.
This is a hands-on winery. Husband and wife, children (including children’s partners) & even neighbours, when necessary, help out at certain times of the year. We learned that Viognier is a bit of a pig of a species to deal with & needs ongoing attention; after pruning, It sprouts random shoots frequently.
HawkesRidge Winery Estate was also noteable for the passion & expertise of its owner/presenter. You drive through a large olive grove to arrive at the cellar door. This winemaker is willing to blend varieties to get optimum quality & taste.
Don & Jennifer, a couple on tour with us, commented that they loved the excellent informative presentation & the range of wines, particularly the 2019 Tempranillo, 2023 Viognier and sticky (dessert wine), which was a late-harvest Viognier.
I enjoyed the 2022 Wild Rose, the C’est Beau Rose (Pinot Noir & Viognier) which was a spritzer & the smooth 2021 Merlot.
We enjoyed the tasty crispy-based pizzas & delicious dessert platters. Didn’t know that there was a yellow-fleshed watermelon!
Great olive oil here too (which, like the wine, can be bought on line).

08/10/2024

A great trip!

08/10/2024

We had a great first day on our latest Hawkes’ Bay Winery tour.
After travelling from Tauranga, our first stop was at Sileni Winery, now part of the Booster group. We had an excellent presentation by Dominique & sumptuous platters with all sorts of delights to savour. From the first tasting, of a well-structured, slightly-oaked Sauvignon Blanc, we knew we were about to experience some wonderful wines.
We had a little time to use & had seen a sign on the main road indicating a pottery. Eventually we saw the sign for Kamaka Pottery on a fence. We drove in to a glorious,colourful garden. A gentleman came down and said the pottery was not really open or selling at present, but he was willing to show us example of the pottery produced. How lucky were we! Designed by the prominent architect John Scott (1924-1992), the house on the propertyand Kamaka Pottery were built for the potters Bruce and Estelle Martin and their family in 1970. The house is considered to be among Scott's best work and is considered to be one of the most important NZ dwellings of the period. The pottery building is unusual in being architecturally designed. Each room has a different function in the manufacturing process. On the site Bruce and Estelle built a wood-fired kiln and pioneered the production of anagama pottery in NZ. Their subsequent work established the couple at the forefront of New Zealand potters.
We then visited the combined Radburd/ Bostock Cellars. Kate Radburnd has been a revered maker of wine & won countless awards for her wines over many years. We were fortunate to have her daughter, Jess, herself an accomplished wine-maker (having trained overseas on several notable vineyards) as our presenter. Radburnd makes small quantitieis of hand-made wine.
Bostock is one of the pioneers of organic agriculture & viticulture. It provides fruit & vegetables nationally & sells internationally (exporting to over 40 countries in Europe/Asia.
We tasted exceptional wines from Bostock/Radburnd, obviously made with personal pride & meticulous attention from planting to product. Radburnd make small parcels of Chardonnay, Syrah and Merlot Cabernet. All hand-picked, hand sorted and barrel-aged.
Pinot Gris, Rose, Syrah – we had tastings of exceptional, memorable wines.
Bostock’s next venture is to have polo fields, which are in the process of being readied!

27/09/2024

Paul had a great day, on Tuesday, when he took a local retirement village group to the Heritage Centre at the Cambridge Stud. The Heritage Centre features interactive displays, photographs, trophies, and memorabilia telling the story of Sir Patrick Hogan and Sir Tristram’s contribution to the New Zealand and international racing industry.
The group then travelled on to the Morrinsville RSA for lunch.
A memorable trip with a lovely group!

26/09/2024

Be quick to snaffle the two seats which have become available again on this popular trip!

Sunday 29 September, 2024 We have had two late cancellations because of injury & illness, so have 2 seats available on this very popular...

22/09/2024