AUCKLAND’S WINERIES OUT WEST

West Auckland has been creating award-winning wine for more than a hundred years, and now a group of local and passionate winemakers have teamed up to create Wineries Out West, a collaboration dedicated to promoting their historic grape-growing region – a mere 30-minute drive from Auckland’s CBD – in the hope that more Aucklanders will ‘support local’. “As third-generation winemakers, we are very happy to be making a quality of wine now that our parents and grandparents could only aspire to, and would be extremely proud of. Our family has been making wine in Kumeu for 75 years, and we are committed to continuing that tradition of hard work, and the pursuit of excellence, well into the future,” says Michael Brajkovich, MW, winemaker at Kumeu River Wines. These authentic, familyfriendly wineries include Westbrook, Coopers Creek, Soljans, Babich, The Hunting Lodge and Kumeu River, all of which can be visited in just one day. wineriesoutwest.co.nz

*Also see our tips for short-distance travel on page 138.