Cider, Wine and a Round of Gizzy Mini Golf

Fruity and refreshing flavours

First things first, let’s get a reminding taste of the main man, Scrumpy Apple Cider. This is the one that has won gold in both New Zealand and international cider awards, and remains a favourite for a reason. Then we move between products, comparing apple ciders, then some mixed fruit ciders, lemon ciders, ginger ciders and ginger beer. Each one is super refreshing – something you’d want with you on a sunny day.

We finish the tastings with some new ciders we will look out for next time we are in Pakn’Save. The Thomas & Rose’s Watermelon & Cucumber is definitely a winner for us. We also finish the tastings talking about how some people would usually worry that they would be over the limit when tasting cider so they would not be able to drive legally. With that, Teresa says she has a breathalyzer to reassure customers. Although we don’t need reassuring, we give the breathalyzer a go for the sh*ts and giggles.

A sneak peak into the cidery

Now that we have established that we are not too drunk, we are sharp enough to go upstairs in the winery and have a look through the viewing window into the working cidery. We see the team getting ready to bottle the cider behind gargantuan tanks. Although Teresa can point a few things out about the process of cider-making to us, there is also plenty of information boards scattered about the room to explain the process. We also see a mini shrine dedicated to the Harvest ciders throughout the ages: we always dig looking at how much branding has changed.

That marks the end of our Harvest Cidery visit, an activity that doesn’t take too much time so that we can make something up for lunch back at the holiday park and do a wee bit of work. Although we plan to head out to the Millton Winery this afternoon, there is one quick thing we want to do to break up our alcohol tastings in Gisborne…

The hilarious Gizzy mini golf course

Hidden behind the Gisborne i-SITE, beyond all the flyers and local information, is a pretty awesome mini golf course. It’s a super cheap thing to do if you need a fun way to pass the time in Gisborne! Armed with a golf club and a ball, we go through the back of the i-SITE to the 18-hole golf course which is so pleasingly Gisborne! Each hole has a some sort of Gisborne or east coast theme: it has surfing, fishing, 4-wheel driving, fishing, the East Cape Lighthouse, our favourite: freedom camping, and so much more. We never thought we would say this but this is a golf course with an awesome sense of humour!

Playing mini golf in the warm Gizzy sun has our thirst building again, which is ideal since we have more drinks to taste at the Millton Vineyard. (Don’t worry, we know the best way to cure thirst is H2O, we are purely looking for transitions between activities here…)