Our last day of luxury

• Graeme_sarah's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Blenheim

Trip Start Apr 12, 2009 Previous
Entry Trip End Jul 05, 2009 Next
Entry

  Blenheim, South Island, New Zealand
Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Our last morning in the B&B saw more home-made muffins and bread for breakfast with lashings of home-made jam. Being woken up by BeeJay the Birman kitty purring on our bed we got ready for our day pottering round the vineyards making some purchases for our time in the camper van. Much to our surprise (and excitement) our hostess offered us the use of her husband's Porche Boxster S for the day............we excitedly accepted and went cruising round the sprawling Marlborough wineries. Having the time of our lives jetting (at a sensible speed, of course) through the wide straight roads with miles of vineyards and wineries either side we went to Cloudy Bay first (apparently owned by Louis Vuitton) and purchased a tasty Sauvignon Blanc - the Marlborough speciality. Our second stop at Georges Michel (not the pop star!) saw us purchasing a rosé that we both liked..it must have been good for Graeme to like! Having been told the story of how Georges' daughter now runs the winery, I asked what had happen to Georges, perhaps he had died? How embarrassing to then have the sales lady point through a window the next room to Georges himself sitting in a meeting :-) A flying to visit to Spy Valley caught us both by surprise, liking many of the wines and having a good chat with the girl at the cellar door - another perk of coming just out of season.

It then started to rain so we had to close to soft-top and turn on the windscreen wipers :-( But we returned to our favourite vineyard from the wine tour - Highfields, for a spot of lunch and acquiring some more bottles of wine.

In the evening we took the owner's dog Tess out for a walk to the supermarket and bought a chicken to cook on their rotisserie BBQ for dinner. Feeling very at home we enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and the remenant carrots and potatoes from their meal to made a feast.

Catching the bus in the morning turned out to be a more amazing experience than we could have imagined! Leaving Blenheim on the coach we soon reached the coast, catching glimpses of massive seal colonies in Kaikoura, and even wild penguins hanging out on the beach as we sped past. Easily our animal-spotting highlight of the trip so far! We are very glad our itinerary includes a proper stop in Kaikoura a few weeks away so we can get a real glimpse of these amazing creatures in their natural habitat.

Our arrival in Christchurch was not a disappointing one either, the city seemed to be very well maintained and had a warm and rather old-school feeling. The driver on our little '$5 bus' (which actually now cost $7!) informed us that it is the city most influenced by the British, with all the native trees in NZ being evergreen they imported many trees and plants from the UK so anything with autumnal colours came from overseas. It was strange once he'd said this because all of a sudden everything looked a lot like Wollaton Park!

But we got to picking up our camper van, a Mercedes Benz beast! It's 7.2m long and 3m high and will be our home for the next 3 weeks - so be prepared to hear lots about it!

Slideshow Share

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Tess and BeeJay

Wine :-)

In the camper van

Previous Entry Next Entry