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New Zealand: camper van in winery havens

I’ve just spent five glorious days tootling around Central Otago in a Maui motorhome and the highlight was spending a night sleeping in a vineyard.

The Winery Havens are a unique concept that Maui have pioneered. They have five vineyards they’ve partnered with (so far) and all you do is book in for $155 per night, drive your mobile apartment to said winery and you will be shown to your personal parking space with vineyard views – and in our case at Carrick, looking over the beautiful Lake Dunstan surrounded by autumn colours under huge blue skies.

You’ll also receive a platter or a basket of food to nibble in your motor home and a bottle of wine.

UPDATE: Winery havens are now only operating in Australia.

Parked at Carrick
Parked at Carrick

If you time it right (like I did) or you call in advance, you can meet the owner or the wine maker and take a backstage tour of fermenting barrels, then have a little taste as you get to know all about their wines.

Wine growers and their makers are passionate people, so this Winery Haven experience provides a lot more than parking up for a night away from noisy neighbours.

Mercury Bay, NZ
Mercury Bay Estate at Whitianga

I’m a curious person (bloggers tend to be!) so I could taste and talk all night long about the art of wine making, what got them started on their journey, etc, etc.

But wait, there’s more. You are then provided with a picnic basket from the chef and a bottle of wine to take to your camper van and cook up a gourmet meal to eat inside if it’s chilly, or roll your awning out, set up your table and chairs bask in the stillness of a New Zealand vineyard.

Coney Wines NZ
Coney Wines, Martinborough

It’s a brilliant experience and I can whole-heartedly recommend it.

Maui’s partner wineries are Carrick Wines in Central Otago, Mercury Bay Estate in the Coromandel, Coney Wines in the Wairarapa, Linden Estate in Hawke’s Bay, and Forrest Wines in Marlborough.

Linden Estate NZ
Linden Estate, Esk Valley, Hawkes Bay
Forrest Wines, NZ
Forrest Wines in Marlborough

You might like to also read my post on exploring Central Otago between Queenstown and Wanaka in 5 days >

And you should definitely read my post on Top tips for campervanning in New Zealand! >

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Itziar Sapsootham

Monday 5th of June 2017

Great information! I was looking for something like that. Do you know if it's possible to go to this vineyards with a no-Maui camper???

Megan

Tuesday 6th of June 2017

This is part of a deal they have with Maui, but if you approach the vineyards directly, it doesn't hurt to ask!

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Hi, I'm Megan Singleton and I'm the word slinger of this travel blog as well as on radio in NZ every Sunday. Former Travel Editor at Yahoo NZ and current freelance writer for a few newspapers and mags from time to time, I set off on this travel writing journey 20 years ago and I've pretty much always got a suitcase half packed (or half un-packed!) I'd love you to join me on Facebook or Twitter and sign up for my newsletters if you want loads of travel tips, advice and deals!