I don’t need to look far to find a reason to run, every single one is a good one. That is one way to take care of your own wellbeing, recharge batteries and clear your head from daily rubbish. Also, there is an opportunity to alleviate a bad influence of local patisserie and their produce.

Some people apply the same philosophy to wine. Every reason to visit another winery is good one. Every reason to discover new flavour is priceless… as a result, on the second day of our New Zealand holidays we’ve ended up in Pegasus Bay Winery where every year around this time, they are running a running event called Vine Run :) As you can tell, I was excited already! Running in the vines! But that was not everything that made me drag my husband there for the whole morning! The finish line prize wasn’t some boring medal or pin, it was indeed a bottle of wine! Most delightful trophy ever!

Pegasus Bay Winery is Nested in Cantenbury Region of New Zealand South Island. From one side the inviting rolling hills of Southern Alps and blue waters of Pacific Ocean from the other are painting a pictures setting of this part of the world.

The winery was established in 70’s by Donaldson family and to this day they proudly run the business being an integral part of the local community. Hence the whole idea of organising such an event where all proceedings were donated to Brain Cancer research!

So without any doubt or convincing needed, on the second day of holidays where normal people usually are lying on the beach with their bellies up, we getting up bright and early to join other “like minded” people :D Delicate sea breeze chasing clouds away and morning sun creating perfect conditions for a 18km run :)

Well by “we” I mean, “the breeze”, “the sun” and “other like minded people” as it seems like Alex doesn’t share the same level of enthusiasm for running. But armed with the camera he joins me in my morning preparations to the event!

So here we go, 18km of beautiful scenery ahead of me! Prepared and sent away with humor by the MC we are on our way.

Do you remember the rolling hills bit which were soooo beautiful just few minutes ago? well… Now they don’t seem to be as nice as I thought. One after another they appear to be bigger and more steeper and when you think that was the last one, there is one more hiding few hundreds meter away! The thought that just in few kilometers I will be running in the shade of vines, kept me going! What a feeling that was, running amongst the endless rows of wines with delicate scent of young grapes and feeling the last drops of dew cooling down my dancing… I mean running shoes!

But enough about running, it is time for wine!

I have been awarded with a bottle of Pegasus Bay Merlot & Cabernet Sauvignon! We stashed that one away for later and we’ve opted for degustation at the cellar door! We have tasted 12 wines, one after another each wine surprises us with the taste and quality! Really magnificent range and all worth recommendation. The bottle I won has amazed us as well made us to look forward to this evening when we open it to celebrate the victory!