Airport Motel Renwick

... how things worked. I need not have worried, at Cloudy Bay we were encouraged to taste five wines and as many as ten in some places. What a challenge. And each helpful wine pouring person gave us a bit of history, reassurance that this was an educational endeavour. I have a new favourite wine, gewurztraminer, not popular in the UK, I assume because Pinot Grigio is a lot easier to ask for. Te Keko was ...

... We rounded off the day at Framingham wines, (which is sold in Gordon Ramsey's pubs) here we had six tastings each but unfortuntely didn't like any of them, i'm not sure how this happened since we had so much to drink by this point!? We ended up back in the Cork and Keg to rehydrate ourselves with some much needed beer and cider.

The next day we woke up not feeling too bad other than a few saddle sores. We ate breakfast ...

... and thought it would be good to see the view of the surrounding area. Two hours later we were still marching up hill, this wasn't a small hill either, parts were incredibly steep twisting and turning it's way to the summit. We made it eventually and it did have a fantastic view of the valley below. Turns out there are two ways to the top trig point so we took the alternative route down hoping it wouldn't take as long.... it didn't other than the fact Frisbee twisted his ankle ...

... mostly tanned colour grass with clear sections of green, presumably as grazing treats for the sheep. Eat the chloroformless grass for dinner and we'll let you have chemical green dessert. 'Baa' they say in excitment. So for the first hour we drive on the plains until we pull North-westerly for 10 kms inland on Lewis Pass. At Waikari we stopped for coffee and shelter from the rain. We biked 15 mins North before taking route 70 back to the East coast at Kaikoura passing round the hills ...

... there Katherine and I did a walk up a waterfall trail which was quite challenging considering the terrain of the walk...over tons of large tree roots and rocks and other naturific obsticles!! But great picture opportunities were in abundance! And i officially christened my new trainers that dad bought me to make sure i did some walking! luckily i bought them with me as Katherine only bought flip-flops with her and though she sped off ahead, i think she suffered a few times with the ...

... with several wineries operating out of the cellar and a café. After lunch, we bought our first bottle of wine having planned on spending nothing - the wine was just too good to refuse! The wineries we visited in the afternoon were mostly small family-run businesses where the owners chatted enthusiastically about their wine and their lives. In the end, we bought wine from the people who we liked the most which were these family ...

... he told me that it was postponed because of the weather. Hmmm..right. Down at the ferry port, the boat had in fact not been postponed. It was right on schedule. What we suspected had happened was that they had got their times mixed up and had gone down to the ferry port at 7:30am instead of 9:30am!! That explains the crashing and banging of china at dawn then!! Sigh!! Our ferry was a 3-hour journey with sky tv, bars and cafes. Bog standard really. (David: Except they ran it ...

Leaving Wanaka we head further North up through the South Island. Our first stop on the way is at the Fox Glacier, we get there late in the afternoon and walk to the base of the Glacier in the drizzle but it still looks amazing. We walk back to the car before it gets any darker and make our way into town where we stay at a nice little backpackers and after dinner we crash in the movie room. The next morning we go for a quick walk round Lake Matheson and have a short time ...

We arrived in Blenheim in the search of wine, wine and more wine! The place was just full of vineyards everywhere, I thought I had died and went to heaven! We checked into a wine tour at Montana Vineyard, one of the largest in NZ. They took us on a tour of the winery and then we had a structured wine tasting at the end ...

... I got into the plane, I realised there was absolutely no going back now - I was committed to doing it and the thought made my heart race. It was a very tight squeeze, all five of us in the back of that tiny plane and felt odd to be jammed in between a strange bloke's legs (even more odd for Dean). Oh well, as long as he's packed his parachute properly, I can live with it. I always said that you'd never get me in a tiny plane as the thought terrifies me. But, as we took off it was nothing ...