Where to start? We’ve absolutely LOVED being round here- it’s been nearly 2 weeks now and we’re only just beginning to think of leaving (with a little side trip to Golden Bay for a few days.)

I’ll start with the wine then (as Sauvy B drinkers we’ve definitely taken advantage.) As much as we liked the Hawkes Bay vino, Marlborough takes it to a whole new level- it’s SO good. We had another day cycling around vineyards, pretending that we knew what people were talking to us about (I don’t know how convinced they were of this though.) I’m not sure how wise it is to actively encourage people to cycle around main roads having had the equivalent of 4/5 glasses of wine, but NZ doesn’t seem to think it’s a problem, so who are we to argue with them?

One of the great things about having your own transport is having the freedom to make/change plans at a moments notice. We’ve done this alot- woken up and decided we felt like doing something different to what we’d intended. I’m starting to see why people in UK buy camper vans- I’d never really thought about it as a holiday alternative but I definitely would think seriously about it in the future- I’ve floated the idea of hiring a car in June when we’re in US and driving the coast to coast. We were planning on taking the AmTrac but now I think I’d prefer driving. Especially if it’s an automatic- why have I always driven manual, it’s so much harder!

Anyway, back to Marlborough. After overhearing some Kiwis in a restaurant, we decided to visit Mapua Wharf and Rabbit Island, which was BEAUTIFUL. So quiet and just the most gorgeous beach with crystal clear water.

We’ve done a fair few hikes as well (in preparation for our big 5 dayer, which we’ve just finished today.) I think it might be time to leave the hiking boots off for a week or so (I can hear Sam cheering from here) and maybe do some more kayaking- hopefully we’ll see some of these elusive dolphins- I don’t get why we seem to be the only people in NZ who don’t see them?!

One thing to note: We’ve finally had some of the famous NZ fish and chips- AMAZING! Totally worth the wait.

So, after Golden Bay we’re going to head down the west coast, but as yet neither of us has any idea about what’s there, apart from some big glaciers. I’ve been frantically trying to sort out Xmas and NY in Fiji- it’s peak season there then and everything’s filling up fast in the Yasawa Islands. Oh yeah, and I also need to start thinking about applying to schools IF I decide it’s what I want to do next year. The only problem is, I’m going to have to apply to schools in so many places to keep all our options open. Yawn. I can think of other things I’d rather be doing, like this:

Admittedly it wasn’t very hard.

On Sunday we left Wellington (and the god awful car park campsite) and took the 3 hour ferry to Picton at the top of the South Island. Everyone told us it would be way more scenic down here and we thought “hhm, really? The north’s pretty great.” But so far, they were right. Everywhere we drive, every corner we turn around, we’re amazed by how beautiful the views are- including the ferry. Words can’t really do it all justice, so here’s some pretty photos instead;

10 points if you can spot the dolphin

We’d heard about a really great hiking trail called the Queen Charlotte Track, so we decided to do a bit of that. SO PRETTY. The next day, we climbed, for what seemed like forever, to a lookout. Again, SO PRETTY. In Asia we got temple fatigue- I wonder if we’ll get amazing view fatigue here? Because surely it can’t keep getting better and better?

We’re spending a few days near Nelson, around the Marlborough Sounds, in preparation for our first 5 day trail on Monday (I’m really excited, Sam is less so,) We’ll be doing the Abel Tasman Trail, which is one of the great walks in NZ- 5 days, 4 nights and loads of mosquito bites, yippee! So we thought we’d take some time out and relax for a while (because we haven’t been relaxing for the last 3 months at all.) It just so happens that this is a great wine area- this had absolutely nothing to do with the decision to base ourselves here. Nothing at all.  There’s  a beach nearby, loads of lovely restaurants and most importantly, SUN!

Happy Weekend everyone!

We’ll keep this up to date as we go to new places, but just so you can see how far we have/haven’t travelled.

Some of you may have heard of Hawkes Bay; if not, keep an eye out as you walk past the Chardonnay in the supermarket aisle.  Famous for its wines and beautiful views we decided to change our route south to come via wine country for a day or two, which eventually became 4 nights because we loved it so much.

We’ve also been very lucky with the weather; it was sunshine without rain for about 4 whole days straight, which was lovely, but did mean that Laura had us doing more exercise again; walking and cycling! I can cope with cycling when it’s from vineyard to vineyard though.

There are over 70 vineyards in this region, which made it quite easy for us to cobble together our own wine tasting tour. In the end we only went via 4 vineyards as each one would involve tasting 6 or so wines which quickly adds up when on 2 wheeled transport (although the 40km round trip certainly helped to clear the head). All the tastings were either free (yay!) or $5 (about 2 quid) which really wasn’t bad at all considering the volume of alcohol doled out.

Although Hawkes Bay is known for it’s Chardonnay (and Laura & I are known for our hatred of it) we were pleased to find the wineries also usually had a sauvvy B available, and always had a selection of really nice red wines. I’ve never been big into my reds but I’ve really been enjoying them around here.

We culminated our wine experiences on the final night with a trip to Craggy Range Winery for dinner. We went slightly over budget, but it’s the first time we’ve not cooked in 3 weeks and we had some of the best food and wine I’ve ever had; the steak here genuinely may be the best I’ve had.  The thing that really put us over was the taxis; turns out they’re really expensive here and we ended up spending about 50 quid return!!

Too much wine to choose from!

It also wouldn’t be NZ if we didn’t talk about how flipping beautiful it is around here.  On our last day Laura had us hiking up Te Mata peak, the highest hill in the area for stunning 360 panoramic views of the area.  Although it was a fairly steep 2 hour loop, the views at the top were worth it and some amazing bits of nature along the pathway.

Sadly we had to leave yesterday as we’ve got our ferry to the south island on Sunday and we wanted to get some time in Wellington int.  4 and a half hours of Vanatar grunting his way up and down the hills we reached the only camper van site in Wellington (which is a glorified car park) to discover they were fully booked. As a result we’ve had to head out of town by about 15km to the nearest holiday park, but every cloud has a silver lining; we have fast wifi! So fast that in under 12 hours we’ve burnt through about 12GB of downloading software updates, offline maps and films.  Unfortunately, iPlayer is having none of it so it looks like we still can’t watch GBBO.