Tea tour at Zealong Tea Estate - a must visit destination in New Zealand.

New Zealand is famous for viticulture and wine tours. But have you heard about tea tour in this beautiful country?

It was the last semester of a two-year course at NSIA Culinary school, our tutor suggested a trip to her students to unwind after days up to ear with study and exams, and it would be something to remember after we left school.

Here he is. Mandy of my class.

So she organised an one-day tea tour at Zealong Tea Estate, Hamilton, New Zealand for our class in April 2018. I never had a tea tour experience before, therefore I was quite excited to engage. So did my classmates.

Zealong Tea Estate is the only commercial tea estate in New Zealand, producing 100% organic award-winning tea, and a world-leading destination for tea, art and hospitality. source

The first plan was to hire a bus for whole class but few of my classmates wanted to drive their cars, then we managed ourselves to travel by private cars instead. I joined Jackson’s team with three others and shared petrol bill. Jackson is a super friendly Korean guy, older than us, and we normally called him “Oppa” which means “darling” in Korean language.

Oppa is the guy on the right conner. It's funny when me and Cherry called him "uncle" because there was immediately a scowl on his face.

We departed from school and arrived Hamilton after two hours driving to the south of Auckland. We first visited Hamilton garden (I may write another post about this 54 hectare public garden park later), then drove about 15 minutes to Zealong Tea Estate.

So far it has been the only tea plantation in the country with variety of activities including tea tour, tea tasting, wedding packages and services, signature High-tea, dining, picnic in fields besides offering serene views to tea terraces.

We all gathered in front of entrance and each of us was handed a headphone. We looked like guards indeed.

This is Litto and far in the right corner is Anish.

The tour guide led us along the tea trail through the history of tea with unique sculptures and scenic stops while he was explaining how tea was picked and processed. We also learned the fascinating story behind the history of tea, how it is made, and how Zealong grows tea organically in New Zealand.

It all started with a camellia tree in a neighbour’s backyard. In 1996, Vincent Chen, founder of Zealong recognised a flowering camellia in the Waikato ( a member of tea plant family) grew well here. He thought soil, environment and climate there were perfect for tea growing. Then with his love of tea, especially oolong tea, he decided to cultivate tea in New Zealand.

Does “Zealong” give you any hints about its name?
I guess it is combination between New Zealand and Oolong tea. Such a good way of using language!

Photo credit
The neighbour, Harold Nielsen - A statue of him was as part of the tea walk and sculpture trail.

If you have known Silk Road (con đường Tơ Lụa), you may have heard about Tea Horse Road. Tea and tea culture were first exported from China to the West. At the beginning tea was transported by horses and by men to other parts of China and Asia. It played an important part of tea history.

This is Jerry - the photographer

After learning about tea history and tea processing we had a new-found respect for what tea really is. It’s now time to taste some of famous Zealong organic products.

There are five types of tea for tasting: pure oolong, aromatic oolong, green tea, dark roasted tea, black tea. We are not big fans of tea (except for milk tea 😁) so we couldn’t tell the apparent difference among them in terms of flavours. But colours are obviously different. Green tea is green, dark roasted tea is kind of red and black tea is in darker shade than the previous one.

Two types of oolong had pretty much same colour but different in shade of aroma. There is a shop for visitors to explore other tea products.

In total the tour took between 1-2 hours. I vaguely remember how much was the price, probably 50 bucks per person but it’s absolutely worth any penny.

The weather on that day was at its best, the sun stayed out in our whole trip.

Cherry took her mom with her in this trip

Me and my tutor

We finished the tour and all departed. Some said goodbye to us to visit more locations in Hamilton. My crew headed to Auckland and got KFC on the way home because we all were starving. In general it was a memorial trip for me and for my mates 'cause after leaving school, people purchase their own dreams and we might never see each other again.

So if you say you don't know about tea tour in New Zealand, now you know. Thanks for reading my post and hope you enjoy this experience when you have a chance.

Photo taken by me classmate - Jerry
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