 |
| A Perfect Afternoon at Omata Winery |
We spent most of the afternoon at Omata Estate Winery (per Wayne’s suggestion – thank you) and it was marvelous! Great wine, great food, a great view and a great staff made for a truly memorable lunch and wine tasting experience.
We hung around the apartment all morning, since it is so pleasant here, and it was also a cloudy and a bit windy. And we were also waiting for Omata to open. So around 11am we took a 5 minute drive to the car ferry, and then took the 5 minute ferry ride to Okiato, and then another 5 minute drive to the winery. Omata is a small (6 acre) vineyard with a small, octagonal shaped tasting room/restaurant. We were greeted by Billy who would soon host our tasting. The fun thing was they had these outside tables, with a fantastic view of the vineyard with the Bay of Islands right there in the background, and Billy said we could sit here and he’d bring the wine tasting to us. Sounds good so far, right?
 |
| View of the Vineyard and Tasting Room |
He briefly talked about the different wines they produced and we suggested that he just present us with the wines he thought we should taste. The restaurant was actually very simple, offering up about 5 different platters. However, these platters – at least the one we ordered - was awesome. The food was so tasty I’m going to attempt to make your mouth water by listing each item – from left to right as you can see on the photo below.
 |
| I don't know about you, but my mouth is watering! |
First there is a blue cheese and a locally made cheddar. Then pears mulled in a burgundy wine sauce; a homemade (and delicious) red onion chutney, crackers and olive oil with balsamic, an avocado with some kind of wine/sauce. Next past the breads was a beet/feta cheese sampling that was incredibly awesome (that’s the PG version of my reaction to it), some smoked local grouper, a homemade spicy hummus, dates, pickled white onions and gherkins, some locally made salami and finally a chicken/pork terrine with apricot. And all of this with a very generous sampling of their very good wines. And don’t forget the incredible view, and the perfect weather, and the great person I was enjoying all this with. It doesn’t get much better than this!
What was also nice was that Billy, when he brought out each wine, gave a really good explanation (non -snobby) of each wine, and our conversations with him were really enjoyable. Our tasting and snacking probably took at least an hour and a half – but I wish it could have lasted forever. Everything about our time there was perfect.
 |
| Another View of the Bay of Islands from the Omata Lookout |
But alas, all good things must pass, so soon after we finished the platter and tasted our last glass of wine, we decided to go for a walk. Billy invited us to walk through the vineyard and down to a peninsula where there was a trail to a lookout onto the bay, and we did just that. A very nice walk with a great view at the lookout. We then walked back, paid our bill (including some wine purchases) and said our goodbyes. We then drove and ferried back to town to pick up a few things and then home for our last evening (sad) in Paihia. One of my favorite places of the trip so far!
Tonight we are going to have dinner here on our deck, and start packing up a bit tonight (since we have spread out so much here) for our drive into Auckland tomorrow. A fantastic, beautiful and restful place to spend four wonderful days. Fond memories for sure of the Bay of Islands!
