Martinborough Experience B&B

... delayed our entry by at least 20 minutes. And the grumpiness continued.

Steve finally had to restart the car and literally drive around the exterior of the house, using the car's headlights for illumination in order to find the lockbox containing the door key. After his inevitable success, the mood lightened immeasurably. While Steve drove off to get dinner, Ange and I chose rooms and explored the house.

Named "Circa 60s ...

... Vincent...who it turns out used to work with our Kiwi friend Colin, who we had dinner with on Monday. Talk about a small world! An hour's scenic drive from Wellington, heading north, we arrived at picturesque Martinborough. A clear steer from the visitor centre and we were soon tucking into a gourmet lunch at the local cafe, next to the wine centre. A tapas platter and two glasses of pinot noir ...

... the hill into Featherston, where we had lunch at the Rapa Cafe, which (a) was open and (b) was featured in our Entertainment book, giving us a discount. I entered with some trepidation, as the front room was eerily empty and generally uninviting, and the kid behind the counter seemed to be doing his best to run out the clock on his shift without moving. After ordering, I was happy to find a sunny back patio area, and when the food showed up ...

... suburban Hutt Valley (full disclosure: I don't find the Hutt such a bad place, all in all), Petone has a couple of things to recomend it: a long, sandy shoreline, and a pleasant strip of shops and cafés along the main drag of Jackson Street. Our Entertainment discount book leading the way (and after it first led us, oddly enough, to a café in the Home Depot-like Mitre 10 Mega, on which we decided to pass for the time being), we lunched ...

... wir dann durch die Dessertroad, das sieht es total anders aus, als in den Teilen von NZ, die ich bisher gesehen habe. Und nach 7 Stunden Fahrt haben wir dann erst mal ihre zwei Schwestern und danach noch ihre Freundin und ihren Bruder besucht. Ich war echt froh abends ins Bett zu fallen, aber hatte einen schoenen, anstrengenden, langen, aber total lustigen Tag!!

... the surf the next morning and he said it'd be good down at dolphin bay or the spit. Said he be back in about fifteen and left to see if he could get a key to the gates for the short cut. After about an hour or so of watching really fun looking waves I got out a map and asked someone where dophin bay was. It was about an hours drive around and then a forty minute hike. Was really picturesqe with rolling golden and green hills sloping off a mountain that dropped straight ...

... the stars. We made friends with a pair of ducks that loved our rice crackers! They were waiting for us when we woke up the next morning. And so ends a magnificent day on North Island. We agree that this was probably the best day yet! If you're taking the time to read this, thank you, and please send us a comment. We love to hear from you guys and we truly appreciate all the hilarious, helpful and fun comments we're received so far.

What a different kind of Christmas we had this year! We succeeded in our search for the perfect spot and on 23rd pitched our tent in a DOC campsite with a view to the sea. First things first - spent some time building a "fireplace", dragging rocks and firewood to the camp and getting sweaty and dirty. We have now broken the record of all records and not taken a shower for a full 5 (five!) days. Incredible. Let's hope we will leave the ...

... the easiest route, along the streambed path. However, it was actually really hard work, possibly because we didn't have boots on, only trainers, and possibly because it was really really hot! Next time, we'll do the bush walk that ends up at the top looking down on the pinnacles! After the pinnacles, we drove back to Wellington, via a stop for lunch in Martinborough, a little town in the Wairarapa.

We were really gutted because we had waited around for winter fest at queens town and it was canceled at the last moment and if we had of known sooner we could of left for the north island instead of rushing. It was unfortunate that we had to miss the annual sheep shearing conference that was held in the middle of nowhere, but I suppose ...