Living in Peachland comes with many natural fringe benefits including the awesome spectacle of the spawning of freshwater Kokanee salmon. Perhaps the best place in the Okanagan Valley to see Kokanee spawning is at Deep Creek located in the south end of Peachland and running through Hardy Falls Regional Park. Deep Creek is an important Kokanee habitat and it teams with scarlet red fish every fall.

Thousands of visitors descend on Deep Creek every year to witness this incredible circle of life. Hardy Falls Regional Park features a meandering path through the Deep Creek gorge, where seven wooden foot bridges span the creek and offer a close view of the salmon below. Interpreters from the regional district’s park services are available every Saturday and Sunday, September to mid-October to take visitors on free tours through Hardy Falls National Park.

Landlocked thousands of years ago, Kokanee are smaller relatives of mighty Pacific salmon like Chinook and sockeye. Native to inland lakes, Kokanee spawn each fall by swimming up creeks and rivers to lay their eggs in cold, mountain fed waters. This is just one of the many spectacles of nature that make Peachland a special place to live in the Okanagan.

Aside from featuring the Okanagan’s longest public beachfront, Peachland and the 400 acre new home community of Ponderosa, feature many kilometers of nature trails that meander by creeks, through wilderness and even take you to the summit of Pincushion Mountain. Imagine living in a new home that features a spectacular view of Lake Okanagan at your front door and access to alpine nature trails from your back door.

Historically the Peachland area has been home to adventurers, European pioneers and First Nations peoples who were drawn here by the incredible natural abundance, the close proximity to the lake and the temperate climate. Today, living at Ponderosa gives you all the amenities that come with being part of the vibrant town of Peachland, as well as Ponderosa’s new Greg Norman Signature golf course, a premium winery, luxury hotel, farmers markets, a year round outdoor skating rink and amphitheatre. Ponderosa, the premier Okanagan real estate opportunity, offers authentic Okanagan living and a wonderful balance between community and nature.

If Okanagan wine tours are on your to do list, Peachland is the perfect place to start. The valley has many wineries along its 177 km (110 mile) length, and Peachland real estate is located dead center.

Ponderosa’s new Okanagan homes are well located in Peachland for winery day trips to Vernon in the north and Osoyoos to the south. You can walk through a vineyard, tour a production facility, taste the many varieties of Okanagan wines and even learn how the valley’s wines became internationally recognized.

Thirty years ago, Okanagan wines came in two varieties (red or white), were bottled in jugs with screw caps and the jugs often came glued inside a wicker basket. The jug wines were sweet, cheap and came with corny names like Hot Goose and Fuddle Duck. Times have changed.

In the late 1980s, free trade meant increased competition for Okanagan wines. There were just 14 wineries operating in all of B.C. and vintners took a gamble, ripping out their hardy French hybrid vines and replanting their vineyards with traditional noble vinifera grapes.

Today there are more than 120 wineries in the Okanagan Valley, which is now the second largest wine producing region in North America – a distinction that has earned the valley the moniker Napa North.

Long gone are the jugs and screw caps. Today, Okanagan wines hold their own on the international stage, winning numerous awards for merlots, chardonnays and ice wines. In 2008, West Kelowna’s Mission Hill Family Estate winery won the International Icewine Trophy for producing the world’s best icewine. The same year, Kelowna’s Summerhill Pyramid Winery won a gold medal in France’s Chardonnay du Monde competition. And 2009 marked the eighth year in a row than an Okanagan winery was awarded the Canadian Winery of the Year title from Wine Access magazine.

Okanagan wine tours can start with North America’s largest organic winery, Summerhill, and its famous pyramid, where every bottle of wine is transformed by ancient geometry. Travel 15 minutes to Mission Hill, in West Kelowna, with its stunning view of Lake Okanagan and its Terrace Restaurant – named one of the top five winery restaurants in the world by Travel and Leisure magazine.

Head south from Mission Hill to Peachland and then drive into desert country. You’ll find numerous small estate wineries with delicious offerings and quirky names. Discover Blasted Church, Burrowing Owl, Tinhorn Creek and Twisted Tree – wineries each with their own unique story. Just 20 minutes south of Peachland is the former Scherzinger Vineyards, which rebranded itself into high sales with its new name, Dirty Laundry.

Today the valley has regions for Okanagan wine tours that offer day trippers the chance to experience collections of wineries in one area. There’s Summerland’s Bottleneck Drive, the Naramata Bench Winery Association outside of Penticton, the Corkscrew Drive group near Okanagan Falls and the widely-known Golden Mile Bench, home to a handful of wineries in the semi-arid Oliver area.

Own a piece of Peachland real estate and experience the authentic Okanagan. Ponderosa’s centrally located, new Okanagan homes are the perfect place to begin a winery tour adventure and to wrap up a touring day on a peaceful deck, enjoying the view and sipping a great vintage or two.

Check out www.okanagan.com to see how Peachland’s Ponderosa is perfectly located for Okanagan wine tours.