We Built a Matakana Tour Where Getting There Is Half the Fun

By Benjamin Dale, Vintage Views

Most Matakana day trips begin with a familiar calculation: who’s driving?

It sounds like a small detail until you start planning the rest. There’s a winery you’d like to visit, somewhere good for lunch, perhaps a gallery in the afternoon. Somebody has to navigate, watch the clock and take the sensible option at the tasting.

We wanted to give everyone the day off, including the driver.

So our Matakana Wine Country Discovery begins in central Auckland with a climb aboard Dorothy, our red 1960s London Routemaster double-decker. We head north via the Ōrewa coast, with the city gradually giving way to sea views and countryside. If you take a seat upstairs, you see the change happen through those big windows.

That journey matters. Matakana is close enough for a day trip, but a good day out should feel like it starts when you leave Auckland, rather than when you reach the first stop.

One winery with a story

Our first major stop is Heron’s Flight. Matakana has plenty of places to taste wine, but this family-run vineyard has chosen a particularly interesting path: it specialises in the Italian varieties Sangiovese and Dolcetto.

We’d rather spend time at one vineyard with a story than spend the day counting cellar doors. Guests have a hosted tasting, then we move on with plenty more of Matakana still to see.

A proper pause for lunch

At Matakana Country Park, lunch and an included drink await at Smiths. Afterwards, there’s free time.

You can browse, wander, take photographs or simply sit for a while. We’ve left room for that on purpose. A day out becomes much more enjoyable when every spare minute doesn’t have an instruction attached to it.

Art before the road home

Our final Matakana stop is Sculptureum, where the tour includes a selected gallery experience, a drink and a gourmet sample.

It’s a taste of Sculptureum, rather than a visit to every part of the attraction. That gives the afternoon a memorable finish while keeping the whole day comfortable.

Then it’s back aboard Dorothy for Auckland. Nobody has to find the car, work out who has the keys or volunteer to drive home.

A different kind of Matakana day trip

This is a tour for people who want more than a wine tasting and more than a bus ride. There’s the coast on the way north, a vineyard doing something distinctive, time for lunch and wandering, and a little art before heading home.

Dorothy ties it all together. She’s an enclosed, original London double-decker, and she makes the travel feel like part of the occasion.

If that sounds like your sort of day, see the full Matakana Wine Country Discovery itinerary and available departures. Bring a friend. We’ll take care of the driving.

www.vintageviews.co.nz/tours