Old St Mary's Convent Blenheim

These past few weeks have been some of the best times of my life. We have traveled through both islands in 10 days, it's pretty crazy to think about. I have done some amazing things such as hiking, sailing, zorbing, and kayaking some of the most beautiful places in the world.

Internet is really hard to access here because it is slow and expensive so my time is limited. I'm currently living in Blenheim at the Duncannon Hostel and working 40-50 hours ...

... and minerality.

2008 Riesling – Ripe peachy nose. Crisp citrus palette, good acidity, and minerality again.

2008 Summer Riesling – Low alcohol (8%), 32 g/l residual. Honeysuckle nose, ripe citrus too. Good acid balance too. Ripe apples.

2008 Pinot Gris – Ripe pear and minerality. Spicy, but quite short.

2008 Gewürztraminer – Roses and Turkish delight! Good acidity but thin and rather ...

... the channels of water and curvy landscape. When we arrive at my host places and It looks amazing and there drive is about 10 paces from the waters edge. As I always do with the helpx I arrange to complete full days of work in exchange for full days off which generally works well for both party's. So as well doing my fair share of work I get tonnes of days off to do some wicked stuff while I was there including walking part of the wonderful Queen Charlotte track and biking from ...

... up shortly!! Having paid in other places with the weather, this was to be one of our payback days. As it was the quiet winter season, we were the only 2 on the half-day tours and had the undivided attention of our wine guide for the afternoon. What an afternoon it was too - barely a cloud in the sky and the autumn leaves of the vineyards stretching off into the gloriously sunny distance. An afternoon of tasting at the wineries which ...

... the turn in the road there was one in front of me - a little more public than I was thinking but I needed to stop for a bit. Anyway you'll never guess- it certainly took me a while to get my head around it - I was there!! 5 ½ hours. Thought I was walking slowly found out I must have been walking quite fast particularly since the times say minimum 5 ½ without stops!! Why I also thought I had further to travel is because I thought the resort was back up the hill on the Queen Charlotte ...

... So much for our vacation it is back to work again! The funds were starting to get rather low, so this was more of a necessity for me! I have been traveling with a guy by the name of Mike who is from Holland and who I met about a month ago. I met up with him and 2 other German girls (there are a TON of Germans traveling here right now!!) in Rotorua and we all traveled together for a couple of weeks before going separate ways when Mike and I came to the south island. Anyway, he ...

The road this morning leaving Takaka was carnage but at least the waters have subsided and I could finally get out. The rain stopped at 8pm last night with a few light showers during the evening. If it continued to rain heavy, I think our sanctuary (The Pub) would have been under water too. On the road to Nelson there were countless landslides, fields which looked like lakes and swollen rivers brown with mud and debris from the surrounding peaks. I don't ...

... whale dived into the water, with its tail the last to be seen. These whales live on a diet of squid and jellyfish and there's about four of them, all male, in this area. The water is too cold for the smaller females so they tend to be found in warmer waters such as Australia. The males go to them for mating and then come back. Kaikoura is unique in the fact that it has whales so close to the shore but this is because it has very deep and rich waters, which attracts the sealife and ...

... NZ were playing England in Eden Park so we got a couple of tickets for that and headed out there on Saturday night. The atmosphere was great there and we got talking to a few NZ fans. They obviously thought Rob was one of them in his new All Blacks hoodie! The following day we picked up the camper van and hit the road up north. We had booked a small-ish 4 berth van but when we arrived we were told we'd got a complimentary upgrade and would now be driving a gigantic 6 berth monster! Rob ...

... we went it was just after a storm so it wasnt at its best....to say the least. We decided to do some seakayaking and a walk in the park for teh day. We kayaked with seals and into all the small sandy beaches and coves for a few hours, but the waves were still very choppy from the storm the few days before. We did´nt turn over though in the big double kayak...always a bonus. After that we headed on down south stopping off ata few spots along the way ...