Vintners Retreat Suites Blenheim

... why. He told me about a time when he and his friend (German) were swimming at the local pool. They were speaking in German, since they only knew each other at the pool, and a kid came running up and started speaking to them in German as well. We decided we'll never figure it out, and it's best not to think about it.<br><br>Well, I plan on working at least one week, and almost definitely two. If I survive two weeks, I'll probably work three, but we'll see how it turns out.<br>

... early to find that check-in was not until 3.00pm so explored the town of Blenheim (not a great deal to see - a small modern low rise town centre) and grabbed some lunch at a small Chinese (or was it Vietnamese) café where we had butter chicken curry - excellent! Returned to our accommodation, which was now ready for us. We were in The Shearer's Quarters - one ...

... 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 ...

... but didn't get to Kaiteriteri until after 3 o'clock. Kaiteriteri has three enormous beaches and although it seemed to me to be full of holidaymakers, there was plenty of space on the sand. I think I probably did right to forgo the kayaking, as it is a public holiday today and wouldn't have been the quiet scenic ...

... museum. Om 13:00 check ik in bij de ferry terminal voor de boot naar Wellington. De overtocht duurt 3 uur en dat geeft voldoende tijd om de stranden en contouren van de Queen Charlotte track van een afstand te zien. Ook Nieuw Zeelanders zien het mooie van de natuur hier en hebben hun vakantie huizen aan een van de vele kleine strandjes gebouwd ...

An early start as we set off for a weekend in the South Island (or the mainland; the Pig Island being the North Island according to my boss at work) It didn't disappoint from leaving Wellington, crossing the Cook Straight and into the Marlborough Sounds the views are stunning. Exremely windy ...

... the buffet car - 4 doors between each carriage, 2 with handles so low that you'd bang your knees on them if you weren't already bent double trying to get through - and order "specifically" a black coffee? Back in my seat I discover that I have a white coffee so maybe I wasn't specific enough. "Its so Easy..." indeed. The train journey is great though. There's an open panoramic car where you can take blurred ...

... the hire company. <br><br>That seemingly easy task proved to be utterly impossible as there didn't seem to be any petrol stations within a ten minute radius of the docks in any direction! We were driving around for ages and eventually ran out of time ...