Beachcomber Inn Picton

... there was also a little shop selling chutneys, Christmas decorations and photo frames. David and I tried some interesting chutney flavours and bought some mince pies, which tasted more like fruit cake. At the second vineyard I liked the pinot noir, and I liked the cosiness of the building with its roaring log fire. Some yummy smells were coming from the kitchen. The clouds had lifted by now and it was a gorgeous clear autumn day. I took some lovely photos ...

... on my day! I went to the Weta Cave having checked out, which is the museum / shop for the studios which have been involved in many big films, most notably The Lord Of The Rings. I gave myself plenty of time to board the ferry for a 1pm departure, but still managed to be the last car on board! The four hour journey ended at Picton on the South ...

... at least the sea looked fairly calm, seasick tablets were just in case! My memories of the trip back from the Outer Barrier Reef were still quite fresh.

Apart from my jumping around the various decks to take photos the voyage was fairly calm and really enjoyable going through Charlotte Sound and Marlborough Sound, beautiful and a really blue but very rough sea.



So I get the map pin set correctly I will continue 'North Island' on a new page - see you soon.

... Sounds. and lastly, the Marlborough wine region; known as the new serious player in the white wine production game... savignion blanc is their big star. the marlborough sounds may not be as dramatic as its big brothers down south (milford and doubtful), but it definitely does not play second fiddle to either of them. the most interesting thing about this area is how winding it is. for example: the sounds are about 42km in length ...

... road along the coast line, the views were stunning. Along the road we found a sign for a lookout and headed up to a very small car park crammed with 4 other camper vans, which was something of a shock as we have been used to having these places all to ourselves. It turns out they were all headed int he opposite direction to us, so it really was just a one off (although it was a real pain trying to get teh van back out ...

... that the Catlins area would be nice but we more or less just drove through that area and then landed in Dunedin for Paddys day. We landed there too early though so we headed off inand to do the railtrail. It was an old railway line that they turned into a cycle track for tourists so we headed off on a two day trip there. It would eb handy to read teh guidebooks though before you go anywhere as we ended up starting at teh feckin downhill end and ...

... and were ready for the big gun! The Cloudy Bay range of wines was larger than we had expected and even included a sparkling white, a Riesling and a Late Harvest. The 2007 Sauvignon Blanc was good but in some ways was not as good as the previous vintages we'd tasted. There was however a big surprise install for us in the form of the 2005 Te Koko Sauvignon Blanc. It was like nothing we had ever tasted before, a more full bodied Sauv with all the original Sauv ...

... going to go directly to the train terminal in Christchurch, so we will not have to worry about getting them from the ferry to the train station. It is a full ferry as this seems to be the major way to get from the North to the South island. We find ourselves a seat with a view and settle back for the 3 hour crossing. The sun is shining and it looks to be a great trip. It is a little rocky to start out and staff make an announcement about the ...