Blue Ridge Estate Blenheim

We headed back to Blenhiem for another week of work. By Wednesday though we had have enough of fruit picking and by that point we had swapped supervisors from a lovely lady to a stupid lady who treated us like toddlers. We looked else where for work and came across alot of jobs in the franz josef area so we thought we would take the risk and go there.

... good weight and acid, lime finish, crisp and good length.

2008 Riesling – 16g/l residual. Rich honeyed nose with some blossom notes. Ripe citrus with good acid balance.

2007 Envoy Riesling – 56g/l residual. Minerality and honeysuckle on the nose. Sweet start and lime dry finish – luscious. Long.

2008 Pinot Gris – Pears and spice (like a crumble!), cinnamon. Good acidity and ...

In an admittadly emotionally driven decision, I left christchurch on the great road trip.
The first challenge was fitting ten people and all their luggage into two cars.
Role Call:
Me
Climber Max
Daniel
Daniel's Tall Friend with the Ginormous Camera
Daniel's Flatmate.. (names on those two TBA, they were in the other car)
Stefi (Petra S's friend from Austria)
Petra S
Petra G
Christian
Adam

I was honestly nervous (and thus prolly ...

... 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 ...

... fantastic weather and impressive not being late for the 8am sailing was the PARKING of our VEHICLES on the lorry deck! To my surprise we got to ride our bikes on the ferry (making my carefully pannier packing in case we had to check them unnecessary). We got to park them just in front of the 44 tonne trucks on arrival. To depart we then got to rumble up the ramp first, peacefully with our 3 fellow touring cyclists leading a medley of roaring petrol engines. After all ...

We arrived at Picton and got to the best lodge we've been to till now. There were 3 main things that made it really good - a piano & guitar, a breakfast included every morning and an outdoor hot-tub! We definitely use these benifits :) After a good night sleep we took a taxi-boat to the beginning of the 71km Queen Charlotte track, which goes along the Queen Charlotte sound. Usually people do parts of it or all ...

... wet, too muddy too cold! It would almost be disappointing if it didn't rain in a place that has given up measuring annual rain fall in MM preferring Meters! - Taken an over night cruise of Doubtful sound. Our journey in was perfect, it had snowed all night & the sun was now shining but as soon as we entered the fiord mist began to cling to the sides of the cliffs obscuring views & scale, bringing with it deathly silence only fractured by our kayaking in water that ...

... pipe down. So, the boat trip itself was a bit boring. Reminded us a bit of the "Exposiotion of Flowers" (garden centre) in Brazil. We were more entertained my the family that came along where the 3 sisters spent the whole time giving out to the youngest brother who was a little bit nuts. Like, he spent the end of the journey under the seat... The actual trip involved driving around the sounds (lots of little islands ...

... driving was tricky as the road was so narrow and winding, but we could not find an entrance point to the walking tracks. We did however have a shock when sheep on the road decided to panic and run in front of us for about half kilometre until eventaully deciding that they did like the look of the grass verge. After a spending a few days around the Sound we finally ended up in Picton, a a strange town and the port from ...

... to negotiate, stopped at a couple of lakes to bask in the sunshine and bought a dozen green lipped mussels from the place that's meant to be the absolute best in the world for them. I was a bit dubious, but we cooked them with some white wine and garlic which would make anything taste nice really! Stayed at a campsite along the way and then decided to head down to Kaikoura to see some wildlife.