Southland's garden Christmas market is back this month, and this year every ticket holder has a shot at a Stewart Island holiday.
The annual Southern Artisan Christmas Fete will be held at The Hideaway in Winton on Saturday 21 November, running from 10am to 4pm, the Otago Daily Times reported on Thursday. Tickets are $20 a person, with early-bird tickets and gourmet lunch packages sold online ahead of the day.
The headline prize is a Rakiura getaway valued at more than $1500: two nights at Stewart Island Lodge, a guided kiwi-spotting trip, return ferry travel across Foveaux Strait and shopping vouchers. Everyone who buys a ticket goes into the draw automatically.
The fete brings artisans and New Zealand-made businesses from around the South Island to Winton for the day, with stalls selling homewares, jewellery, clothing, artwork and plants set out through the venue's gardens. Food vendors will be on site, and the entertainment line-up includes singer Jason Schmidt, the Jet Set band and the D&M Duo.
The event has become a fixture on the central Southland calendar. A 2019 listing on the Winton community website described it as a shopping day of more than 180 stalls set among the gardens of The Hideaway 201. Its late-November timing makes it one of the first big Christmas shopping events in the region each year, drawing visitors from Invercargill, Gore and the Lakes district.
It also lands in a busy stretch for Southland's makers. The Waikaka Arts Exhibition opens at Centennial Hall on Friday 6 November with seven days of work for sale, and Gore has joined the Southland Arts Trail for the first time this spring.
Stewart Island's guided kiwi-spotting tours are among the few places in the country where the birds can reliably be seen in the wild, with the Rakiura tokoeka active at dusk and after dark on beaches and in the bush.
Winton is about 30 minutes' drive north of Invercargill on State Highway 6. Tickets and lunch packages are available through the fete's online booking page, and gate sales have been offered in previous years.
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