Today was our biking and winery day. Both of us were excited – we got engaged at a winery in Napa so there were already sparks flying. There was a bike shop next to our hotel so we went there first thing. We rented e-bikes and received instructions on how to use the bike and our route. Interestingly, the front and back breaks were opposite to bikes back home…when in doubt, squeeze both or just shout.

Arrowtown was our first destination about 20 km away. It was a gorgeous ride along the river under canopy trees and through open pastures. We learned that Arrowtown is a quaint, historic, gold mining town. We stopped at a local café for a matcha, muffin, and chocolate chip cookie – Brian needed to keep the cookie a day streak alive. To be honest, the muffin was significantly better than the cookie – at least we got both!

Ok, now onto the wineries that were part of the return journey back to Queenstown, along a different route. The first winery was Ayrburn. It was stunning from the get go and quite expansive. It was newer and so there was still a decent amount of construction, but what was already finished was gorgeous. They seemed to be building a small community within the winery including a bakery, butcher shop, ice cream parlor and additional housing. We ate at the Woolshed and shared a few sides. We were saving the main entrée for the next stop.

Mora Wines was the next stop on our selfie wine tour, which was smaller and a bit older. Naturally we came for the food (Brian) and wine tasting (Anna). We had the beet glazed salmon cooked on a cedar plank and some warm bread with fig butter. Talk about a stuffed fig (pig, I mean us or just Brian). We tasted a few wines before the ride back to the hotel. The e-bikes had a few levels of assist, turbo being the highest level. We hit turbo on the way back and cruised. A few storm clouds were looming and we didn’t want them to catch us!

We did a quick hot tub back at the hotel and then walked around a bit. We stumbled upon some pick up field hockey and agreed that we would need to brush up on some of the rules. But running around half bent over – yeesh!

This may have been our second favorite day yet, but they say the skies the limit!