Marlborough Region

 08 03 2013
  Yet again we have to do a tour of some bloody supermarket car park before we finally find our way to the road taking us away from Nelson. The navigator is quite good at “straight on heres” but hasn’t grasped the left and right discipline. We would have liked to have explored more of Nelson ( not car parks) but time is pressing and we have to move on so it was ‘up the mountain…..  down the mountain’ once more, and now we are in Blenheim. We did stop on the way at the small town of Havelock for lunch, the green shell mussel capital of New Zealand, and had a yummy takeaway of mussels cooked with garlic. Rick Stein eat your heart out!
  Blenheim is the heart of the Marlborough wine region and driving into town we passed more vineyards than you could imagine. We recognised some famous names and some not so famous but by the end of the weekend we may know a bit more about Marlborough wines. ……. Or not!
 We have parked up, booked our ferry crossing to the North Island for Monday, booked a days wine tasting trip for Sunday and reserved two seats in the pub tonight to watch Super15’s rugby on TV.
Turbot for tea, it can’t be all bad!

  09/03/2013
 After an hour or so mooching around Blenheim, with time out for Jane to get a haircut, we found out, that typical of N Z and Australian country towns, not much goes on at weekends. This town opens at about 10am and closes at 1 pm on Saturdays, but at least it stays open until nearly five o’clock on weekdays. Once we had walked 2 laps of the town centre we headed off down the coast for a picnic by the sea driving past lots more vineyards. Some of them had cellar doors and the one we were particularly interested in was shut, come to think of it, most of them were shut.  Mount Riley was the one we would have liked to have visited for a taste, maybe we will get there tomorrow on our tour. Off to the pub again tonight as it’s just across the road and there’s more super15’s on the tele.

 10/03/2013
 Now that’s the way to spend a beautiful warm sunny Sunday. Chauffer driven around some of the finest vineyards anywhere, if you like Sauvignon Blanc that is! Just 10 of us in the party, 4 Aussies, 2 Canadians, 2 Germans and us all enjoying a tipple. We visited 6 vineyards and there was never a shortage of samples, with one stop tasting champagne style wines only.  Jane said, if there had been more she would have been glad, after all she is now a connoisseur  of fizz, pink or otherwise.
 We had a lovely lunch at one of the vineyards , sat in their yard in glorious sunshine, then more tasting before being dropped off around 5 -30, in time for early evening beer.
Swapping islands tomorrow.

 11/03/2013
  South Island is done, a most amazing scenic part of the world. Millford Sound, the glaciers, Hanmer Springs, Arthur’s Pass, Akaroa and the marvellous Marlborough wine region, all incredible places to visit. Although we have managed to see most of what we intended it would have been nice to do it at a more leisurely pace, and of course there is lots more to see.
The drive from Blenheim to Picton for the ferry takes just over half an hour so we set off with plenty of time to give ourselves chance to have a look around the town. Again the Scottish influence is evident and in fact there seemed to be plenty of Scottish accents around.
 Picton is not a big place but you could make a day out of wandering around.
 Then it was onto the ferry, the biggest one I’ve ever been on, certainly bigger than the Isle of Mull ferry, the Isle of Wight and probably bigger than the channel ferries. The three and a half hour trip wasn’t what you would call exciting, though there was live entertainment in the bar which reminded me of the Holyhead/Dublin ferry with a couple of guys singing Celtic rebel songs.
 So, now we are in Wellington with a week left to see some more of the North Island.