still on day 2: martinborough

After the little seal fiasco at Red Rocks, we trooped down to Martinborough in the Wairarapa region in two cars where the ratio of adults to kids was 1.5:1. I've always thought there should be at least two adults for every kid on a trip to anywhere so that at least there can be some kind of rotation between each pair of guardians to ensure everyone gets to see or do what he/she wants/plans to.

Nevertheless, I did have a decent time even with the rain and fog on our backs. First up, the ravenous adults needed to be fed. There weren't many places open at 3pm on a Friday in sleepy Martinborough so we made do with the very limited option we had - IN.GRE'DI.ENT Cafe and Delicatessen. It's a very small but cosy little shop manned by two fantastic ladies who were absolutely cool with this huge group of noisy tourists with too many kids invading the cafe and re-arranging all their furniture to fit us all in.





Initially a bit disappointed by the lack of variety of hot foods in this little cafe, I was immediately impressed by their bacon and egg pastry that came with a pickled vegs dip and this very interesting dish of minced beef in cabbage rolls. Lunch turned out exceedingly satisfying as we ended up overstuffing ourselves by ordering that extra plate of cheesecake, hence the smile on my face below as I finished up the last of my cappuccino.



We took some time to check out most of the shops along the main street. It was desserted. I don't even remember seeing another person wandering around on the street like us. I wonder if that was because it wasn't a weekend or if it was due to the dark clouds looming in the sky that eventually poured down as big heavy wet drops of rain on us; that did drive us all back into our cars and ended our little tour of the town.



Last shots with the iconic Martinborough Hotel behind us as evidence that we've been there before the mad dash to the cars for the journey back to Wellington.