Marlborough wine tours from Picton start in the ferry and cruise town and drive you 20 to 30 minutes to the cellar doors. Pick a shore excursion timed to your ship, or a half-day off the ferry.
Built for your ship. The guide meets you at the Picton i-SITE car park where the free shuttle stops, usually at 9.30am, for four wineries and a chocolate tasting, and brings you back in time.
From $173 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Look for the prebooked tours sign in the Picton i-SITE car park. About five and a half hours ashore: four wineries, the chocolate factory and the tastings in the fare. Lunch is extra.
From $150 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The ferry-town half-day. Your driver-guide collects you from central Picton, or from the i-SITE if you arrive by ferry or train, for three or four wineries. Eat before you set off.
From $107 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
A full day with a Picton pickup from 9.30am, or 9.15am in summer. Tastings are in the fare and lunch at a winery is your own. Its timing does not suit cruise passengers.
From $127 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Follow the blue line from the ship's shuttle to the yellow flag at the Picton i-SITE. Around five wineries, the standard tasting fees and a chocolate tasting are in the fare. Adults only.
From $165 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Ship passengers are met at the Picton i-SITE. Nine guests at most, four wines at each of three or four cellar doors, all in the fare, and a chocolate stop on request. Lunch is not included.
From $98 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Tastings and a light lunch in the morning, a seafood cruise on the Sounds after. A pickup at your Picton accommodation is an add-on with a surcharge, so book it early.
From $185 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
An afternoon from central Picton at 12.30pm, or 12pm from May to October. Four wineries with the standard tastings paid. Coming off the 12.15pm Interislander, you will miss it; book the morning instead.
From $112 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The afternoon half-day collects you from central Picton at 1pm, half an hour before its Blenheim pickups. Three hand-picked wineries, every tasting in the fare, and no lunch stop.
From $104 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Your guide meets the free shuttle at the Picton i-SITE. Four wineries and a chocolate tasting, and back before all-aboard.
Check availabilityIt is a wine tour that starts in the ferry and cruise town at the top of the Marlborough Sounds, 20 to 30 minutes north of the vineyards. You are collected at your Picton accommodation or at the Picton i-SITE on the foreshore, driven south to the cellar doors, and brought back. Compare every Marlborough Wine tickets before you choose.
Two kinds of traveller start here. If you come in on a cruise ship, you book a shore excursion, which meets the ship's free shuttle and is timed to your port hours. If you come in on the ferry from Wellington, or stay in Picton, you book a half-day or a full day that collects you in town.
The drive is part of the day. The road south runs through the hills to Blenheim and the Wairau Valley, and your guide talks you through the region on the way.
The guide collects you where you are. Blenheim-only tours would leave you to find your own way down the road, or charge you to be collected.
They meet at the i-SITE where the ship shuttle stops, and they are scheduled round your port times. Most Blenheim tours are not, and several say so.
On every tour here, the cellar-door tasting fees are paid for you. A chocolate tasting at Makana is part of most shore excursions too.
The shore-excursion vans take ten to thirteen guests, so you can hear the host and ask questions at the counter.
If you have the choice, here is what starting in Picton changes.
| From Picton | From Blenheim | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you meet | Central Picton, or the Picton i-SITE for ships and the ferry | Your door in central Blenheim, and Renwick on many |
| Time to the vines | 20 to 30 minutes each way | Minutes |
| Shore excursion fares | $150 to $173 | Not sold from Blenheim |
| Half-day fares | $98 to $112 | $98 to $121 |
| Lunch in the fare | Only on the wine-and-cruise day | On a few full days |
| Private day | Ask an operator | One private day, from Blenheim |
| Best for | Cruise passengers and a day off the ferry | A night or more in wine country |
If you have a night to spare, stay in Blenheim and read Marlborough wine tours from Blenheim: the choice is wider and the pickup is free. If you have one day in port, stay here.
Every shore excursion starts at the Picton i-SITE, and each tells you where to find it. Jade Tours meets you in the i-SITE car park where the shuttle stops, usually at 9.30am, and books two guests or more. Marlborough Wine Tours waits by the prebooked tours sign. Discovery Wine Tours marks a blue line from the shuttle to a yellow flag.
The days run four to six hours: four or five wineries, a chocolate stop, and the ride back in time for all-aboard. Fares run from $150 to $173 a person, with the tastings in the fare. Lunch is not, so eat on board before you go ashore. The Discovery day takes adults only.
Kiwi Holiday Tours also meets ship passengers at the i-SITE, on a shorter day at a lower fare. For how to pick between them, read the cruise post on wine tours for cruise passengers.
Meet by the prebooked tours sign at the Picton i-SITE. About five and a half hours ashore, with the tastings in the fare.
Check availabilityThe Wellington ferry takes about three and a half hours. If you arrive in the morning, an afternoon half-day is the tour to book, and timing matters.
The Marlborough Wine Tours afternoon leaves central Picton at 12.30pm, or 12pm from May to October. It is too early for the Interislander arriving at 12.15pm. The Bluebridge arriving at 11.45am should be on time. Sounds Connection's afternoon collects in Picton at 1pm, and its Picton half-day meets you at the i-SITE if you arrive by ferry or train.
A morning arrival and an afternoon tour leave you in Picton for the evening. For the sailings and the road, see getting to Marlborough.
For every fare in the region side by side, see what each fare buys.
Staying longer? Compare every tour on Marlborough Wine Tours.