Marlborough Wine Region Tour from the Port of Picton
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Picton, New Zealand
- 4 to 6 hours (approx.)
- Pickup offered
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
When your cruise ship arrives in the port of Picton, located in Queen Charlotte Sound, take a shore excursion to Blenheim and the Marlborough wine region with a guide. Enjoy wine tasting while you learn about the area’s cultural heritage. Travel with a small group along a scenic route and relax in winery gardens and cafés overlooking the Wairau Valley.
- Convenient transport by minivan with a small group
- Sample wines at top wineries without the risk of self-driving
- An easy and indulgent shore excursion to wineries from Picton
- Includes basic wine-tasting fees, and other drinks can be purchased
What's Included
- Driver/guide
- Air-conditioned vehicle
- Port pickup and drop-off at designated point
- Basic wine tasting fees
- Bottled water
- Local taxes
- Alcoholic drinks (available to purchase)
- Lunch
- Omaka Air Museum entrance
Meeting and Pickup
Pickup point
- Picton isite Visitor Information CentreThe Foreshore, Picton 7220, New Zealand
Pickup details
Your tour start time can vary as it is dependant on the ships given arrival time at the Pilot Station, then 2.5hrs to the wharf, Disembarking and getting in to a shuttle. You must arrive to us as soon as possible from the time the shuttles start. We could depart as early as 9am or later at 11am. We will be waiting at the Bus Stop on footpath near the verandah steps. Turn left off the bus and follow the blue line to us where we will have a signboard with your name. If raining, please wait on the verandah. It would be appreciated if you could take an early shuttle to reach us 30 minutes prior to start time. Start time could be earlier if all on board. Be ready to disembark as soon as you are allowed and take note that queues may be present and the tours booked by the ship disembark first.
Operating hours.10:00 am
Itinerary
1
Makana Confections
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
2
Saint Clair Family Estate Vineyard Kitchen
1 hour 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
3
Forrest Wines Cellar Door
1 hour • Admission Ticket Included
4
Nautilus Estate
1 hour • Admission Ticket Included
5
The Vines Village
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
6
Rarangi
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- At time of booking, Cruise ship passengers must provide the following information at time of booking: ship name, docking time, disembarkation time and re-boarding time
- Your tour guide offers mini tour vans of 11 and 9 seats plus six seat private vehicles
- Wheelchair accessible
- Minimum drinking age is 18 years
- Stroller accessible
- Near public transportation
- Infant seats available
- Surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Most travelers can participate
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 10 travelers
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Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
4.4
based on 91 reviews
deanne_b, Apr 2026
Pamela was amazing and very knowledgeable. Showed us so much more . Would recommend her in a heartbeat. Beautiful person . Definitely will used Pamela when we come back . Thanks again Pamela we all loved you xxx
Karen_L, Feb 2026
Really nice day out from our cruise ship. Pamela was a lot of fun. Pick up was easy, which is always a plus. We thoroughly enjoyed the wineries she brought us to. Great group of people, which always makes a difference. Highly recommend!
Alla_S, Feb 2026
We started the tour a bit later , but it was worth the wait
Pamela was a great guide , very knowledgeable and kind , we had visited 4 wineries, a chocolate factory and a strawberries farm with the ice cream, Thank you so much for a wonderful experience!
jeff_w, Jan 2026
Pamela was a great host and was very informative and made the day go very quickly . The other people on the day were very friendly and made conversation and banter for a great day sightseeing and a lovely choice of wines to go with it as well
Monica_J, Feb 2025
Winery’s were fun and tasting was delicious. We were at 4 different ones and the last one having food as well which was much needed by that time.
Lorie_C, Feb 2023
Pamala was very knowledgeable about the wines. 3 wineries and one stop for Gin tasting. Forest wines was our favorite
Nicolas_E, May 2019
This trip did not start until late in day due to the vague clarity of when it would commence.
The trip itself in theory is very good except too much was tried to be achieved in too short time and not enough time given to savour the wine experience
MaryEllen_D, May 2019
This turned out to be a winery tour - but the description made it seem like a scenery/highlight tour with a stop at winery. If you like wineries sign up - otherwise find another tour.
DavidW_K, Mar 2019
Tour company apparently made the decision to reallocate personnel to accommodate an unexpected increase in business from an additional unscheduled cruise ship that day. This resulted in assigning an inexperienced tour driver and guide for the tour we were on even though we were previously scheduled. While waiting to depart the driver had argument in parking lot with another tour company driver and all other driver wanted to do was turn around in that parking space. Notwithstanding this we departed late as our driver was organizing other tours before we could leave. On way to one of the wineries the driver got lost and admitted never driving there before. Stopped for lunch and group was not told we had to pay at counter after the meal. We waited for quite some time before we figured it out on our own delaying us further all while driver was in parking lot. A side excursion to shopping area at request of one traveler was added adding to our delays which overall resulted in tour ending almost two hours late eliminating time to explore Picton as advertised. We had to get on one of the last shuttles back to the ship since we were out of time. During the trip the tour driver/guide did not care about getting back on time and provided snappy response when queried. Subsequent discussion with the tour company owner via numerous emails was to no avail. While I would expect to experience a much better tour in the future, based on the lack of responsibility by the owner for this tour our party of 4 obviously would not use this tour company in the future.
Linda_S, Mar 2019
The tour we booked though Viator was excellent. Our driver/guide Larissa was great. She was friendly and knowledgeable about the area. The countryside was beautiful. We really enjoyed the ride and visiting the wineries.
Camper04973405252, Feb 2019
Tour guide was very good. We visited 4 different wineries. We enjoyed all of them.
I would recommend this tour.
john_e, Feb 2019
We were a group of 6 adults and did this tour from our ship Solstice in Jan 2019, we were met by our tour guide Lisa, who took us for a very informative tour of Blenheim and we did a wine tour visiting 3 wineries, which were the Saint Clair Vineyard, the Forrest winery, and the Clos Henri vineyard located in an old quaint church. All the wines we tasted were excellent and gave us an appreciation for some of the nice New Zealand wines available. Lisa kept us in check and made sure we were back to our ship pier on time. The tour was about 5 hours, but was very relaxing.
Elizabeth C, Feb 2019
The tour was terribly disorganized. Wasted 1 1/2 hours waiting at the dock for other participants while a party of two was sent ahead. Spent only 10 minutes at two different vineyards, learned nothing about the wines or the area. Our guide did tell us about UFOs - ugh. We went to a British pub despite the fact that we wanted to experience NEW ZEALAND.
Linda U, Jan 2019
Make sure they book you with Your Local Chauffeur. It is an amazing company with a great owner. They treat you like family and make every effort to make sure you are happy. They will make adjustments to your itinerary if needed. There was one family in another vehicle than ours who had and elderly woman on a tour and they moved her to a different tour that better met her physical needs. They took us to a great location for lunch and everything was fantastic. Just make sure that Viator books you with the company called Your Local Chauffeur. It is a small group excursion. Loved it. Would give it 10 stars if I could.
Hambrook1, Jan 2019
This tour was booked at short notice when we were let down by another company, and it was great value for money. The driver gave us plenty of time at each stop, and had great knowledge of the whole area. Thoroughly enjoyed the Wine Tasting, and Viator is certainly the company to use for all shore excursions going forward for both value and enjoyment.
Charles M, Dec 2018
We're not even wine aficionados and yet these wineries were wonderful experiences. Especially the 'Doctors' The family (Forests) who run and own this and their dtr Beth were incredible hosts Very informed and great teachers about wines and growiing grapes.Really a great day.
Halford_W, Dec 2018
v/good tour , would have been happy if we only stopped t the chocolate factory .Perhaps one less wine tasting stop would be better. found the lunch stop V/ crowded. Hal .
Margaret_S, Apr 2018
We had the best day ever! The tour guide was excellent and nothing was too much trouble! We saw the beautiful surrounding countryside and even called into two wineries, one of them our favourite wine Cloudy Bay. I would definately recommend this tour and our booking with Viator was easy and made the day perfect.
Regina W, Apr 2018
This was great. Pam the owner was our driver and gave marvelous commentary. It was a very interesting tour and stopped at three wineries, a chocolate factory, and some other sights. Pam dropped four of us at the Peter Jackson museum of flight and airplane collection from WWI and WWII. That was outstanding. Paid our own admission. She took the other people on a tour of the town and picked us up later. It was a great day.
William C, Mar 2018
Terrific tour....Pamela is knowledgeable, thoughtful, and friendly. Obviously, loves guiding strangers through the lovely wine country of Marlborough and showing visitors the beauty of her homeland. For cruise ships passengers, I highly recommend this small group 8 people in ours tour in a comfy large van rather than one of the 30-40 person megatours with everybody piled into a coach aka a bus to most Americans.
Elizabeth_K, Mar 2018
I was unwell and couldn't go on the tour, but my travelling partner told me it was excellent.
Nick_M, Mar 2018
We were fortunate enough to do this tour with a company called, Your Local Chauffeur. Our driver was Paul and he was a delightful man with a gift of hospitality. His commentary was very informative and by the end of our tour we were sad to part with him. We visited four wineries - had a delicious lunch at one in a beautiful garden setting, with laden grapevines above us, providing us with generous shade. We also visited a local chocolate factory. The salted caramel chocolate is amazing! We also drove along side Queen Charlotte Sound and the views of the vast expanse of water, rolling hills, vineyards, etc was absolutely stunning. We took some great photos from one of many look outs and from one that overlooked our ship, The Ovation of the Seas. Picton is a very picturesque and pretty place, but if you are arriving by ship, do yourself justice and book a tour of the Marlborough wine region. You wont be disappointed. Nor do you have to be a wine-guru to enjoy this tour. My brother accompanied us on this tour and he never drinks wine, but he still found learning about all of the different grape varieties, wines, the history of the vineyards that we visited and the tastings very interesting.
Tom_D, Feb 2018
The rating for this tour is down to unforeseen circumstances outside the control of our Tour Guide. Two guests were 30 minutes late and another asked to be taken back to our cruise ship from the furthest point of the tour which lost us more time. Our tour guide Pamela did her very best to overcome these problems. Our visit to the first Winery St. Clair was very good but Hunters Winery was disappointing as the tasting staff appeared to show no interest whatsoever. Enjoyed the short visit to a chocolate factory and only just made it back to Picton in time for the last shuttle bus.
Carolyn L, Feb 2018
Beautiful scenery and very relaxing. The winery staff are all friendly and entertaining.
Terry S, Feb 2018
Pamela was great. She was informative and flexible.
AnnMaree_R, Feb 2018
We had a fantastic fun day with our tour group. Paul the tour guide and driver made it a memorable day. He went above and beyond. Nothing was to much trouble. We visited 3 winery's , generous taste testings. Also went to a chocolate factory and had a delicious lunch at another winery. The scenery was spectacular through the wine region and Queen Charlotte Sound with lots of photo opportunities. Definitely would recommend this tour.
Pat D, Feb 2018
This tour was a highlight of our trip. Very personalized with the owner Pamela meeting us at the departure point and introducing us to Neill our guide for the day. He was excellent with his knowledge of the wineries and countryside on our trip. The chocolate tasting and cheese shop were enjoyable as was lunch at one of the wineries. We had plenty of time to rejoin our ship. A great day.
Terri_M, Jan 2018
Picton-
This Marlborough wine tour was great with a dedicated Tour guide Pamela who did all in her power to create a fabulous, informed and enjoyable trip in a comfortable mini bus.
We enjoyed three wine tastes but were offered a fourth! Most of us were ready for lunch by then so we decided against a fourth taste!
Lunch was good, at our own expense. This worked out well as we could choose the amount we wanted. Some of us has small dishes I chose a couple of sides with breads which were amazing and just what I needed to soak up the wines! Actually, the only thing that would improve the tastings would have been if there was crackers or breads available at the tastings as some of us had eaten breakfast early.
We then went to a chocolate factory yum! then on to an ice cream and craft shopping area and finally on to a couple of fab look out point to take photos of our ship and the harbour. All the while Pamela told us interesting facts and made sure we were all happy, comfortable and enjoying ourselves. Dont hestitate to book this trip- you wont regret it! It was a fraction of the cost of a ships tour and the shuttle bus takes you right to the Information Centre where you can find the tour guides waiting by mini buses just outside the centre.
Thank you Pamela for a great day out! We wish you all the best with your business.
DOUGLAS F, Jan 2018
Pamela was our tour guide, and one of the best we have ever had. She grew up in the area and is so knowledgeable, personable, and passionate about the area. We went to four wineries for tastings, which were all wonderful! Then on to another winery for lunch on the terrace which was again, wonderful, the food was incredible! Then on to a city tour of Blenheim, stopped at a chocolate shop for a tasting, then on to Marlborough Sound which is truly beautiful! She wanted to take us to more places but we were all getting tired as we were going on 5-6 hours, so we went back to the ship. This was a nice small group tour, and Pamela was flexible with options of what to see and do after the wine tasting, etc. This was one of the best shore excursions of our cruise! Highly recommended!
Yvonne_B, Jan 2018
We had the most wonderful journey with this company.Set off with the farewell from the owner Pamela. Great attention to detail.
The day was sensational with the small group and experience of driver. He was very courteous and helpful. Visited four wineries with the mast being lunch. Never felt pressured to get in the van. Added extras were a stop for chocolate tasting and a cherry buy top. Fabulous and we highly recommend this company.
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