Grape Escape

Assistant Editor Kelly BertrandEnjoys A Flying Visit To South Auckland.

- Kelly Bertrand 

Counting down to a holiday has to be one of the most tedious things in the world – at least, it is for me. I’ve never been the most patient person and the idea of sitting idly as the hours slowly tick by is almost akin to torture.

So when my friend Gemma and I booked a mid-winter escape to Fiji, we decided, stuff it – let’s start our holiday early. Where, you might ask? The previously unheralded tourist mecca of South Auckland.

Scoff if you will, but as we discovered, there’s a bunch of cool things to do, just a few kilometres down the motorway, to help us get in that holiday mindset – but all within 10 minutes of the airport, so we actually had a shot at making our 5am flight the next morning.

Like the ladies we are, we started our “pre-holiday” with a glass or two of vino at Villa Maria Estate, New Zealand’s most awarded winery.

While it’s only a stone’s throw from Auckland Airport, as soon as you amble up the driveway and plonk yourself on a beanbag, you instantly feel you’re in the countryside.