Brackenridge Country Retreat Martinborough

... and we all enjoyed a breakfast of coffee and toasted cheese bread. Immediately following a wander around the tiny town of Martinborough, we headed off on foot to the first stop of our tasting tour, Vynfields.

A great start to the day, despite it being overcast, the walk was nice and cool. Everything that could possibly be doing so at that moment was in bloom. In the micro-climate that makes all those lovely wineries possible, Spring ...

... best meal ever in New Zealand. Tempura courgette flowers stuffed with goats cheese and scallops on warm tomato salsa with potato salad. Tim had chicken with Cumberland sausage on parsnip mash with a side of roast rosemary potatoes. We finished with vanilla panna cotta with preserved plum and strawberry. YUM YUM. We talked to the chef and told him how good his food is. More of the same tomorrow - oh well!!

... that a true wonderland awaits. The reality turned out to be rather less exciting...I'm not even certain what all is claimed to be there, but everything was pretty low-key and spread out over some kilometers, leaving me kind of disappointed in the end. Some health spa type thing here, a quad offroad adventure there, and trailing off into oblivion. Not to give up so easily, I regathered my strength and forged ahead, dreams of the wind farm ...

... of the day: the Staglands Wildlife Reserve. Staglands houses a collection of native and non-native fauna in a very pleasant setting. It's arguably aimed at those with children, but Sheila and I are always suckers for animals (count us in for the petting zoo at the county fair!), and I think it was rather worthwhile as an adult. As are so many things in New Zealand, Staglands was well put-together. A figure-8-shaped track (of maybe 1-2 km in ...

... managed to muscle his way in and convince the guy to lend him his tools and he got stuck in himself. 40 minutes later and Betsy was fixed! Panic over and we were back on the road heading to Wellington. We had missed our booked crossing and there were no more for that day so we are currently parked in a 24 car park in Wellington waiting to make the crossing tomorrow! And then we will be back in the South Island - yeeha!

... So ate a can of tuna and watched the seals surf for a while. Later that day I made a 40 min or so hike to a spot called "the spit". I was just about done for and thought about turning around when I finally came over the hill to an incredible sight. There before me was a wave set up from my dreams. A narrow spit of land led out to a tiny island with waves bending and wrapping around both sides and clapping together over the submerged spit. Because of the swell angle the left ...

... avocado prawns for starter, barbequed Trevally (an NZ fish) on a bed of beans, peppers, chorizo and scallops, marshmallows on the fire for dessert and wine bought on the Hawke's Bay bike tour to wash it all down. Oh so good... Weather held and we didn't have any rain as it was forecasted. We even had a Christmas tree! Our Christmas day walk was not exactly in a winter wonder land but more like a trek in rain forest - it was very very ...

... of the Marlborough and then Queen Charlotte Sound, where the Wellington to Picton Ferry travelled. The view points along the way were once again stunning, giving us both birds eye views over the sounds. We tried to follow some of the queen charlotte track, a treking track which takes you from one end to the other of the sound, however the roadway was difficult to follow and with time pushing we turned around and came back onto the main drag. We briefly stopped in Anakiwa ...

Wir kommen dem ersten Ziel immer näher. Morgen werden wir uns in der Hauptstadt Wellington umsehen... Die letzten Tage waren geprägt vom Regen und von Fahrten jenseits des Meeres. Wir haben Schafe und Rinder gesehen, und Schafe und Rinder, und Schafe und Rinder... Als wir von Napier aufgebrochen sind wollten wir es noch einmal wissen und sind an den Strand gefahren um einen großen Fisch an Land zu ziehen! Es ist allerdings "nur" eine Krabbe geworden ;-) yammy yammy ...

... On the drive in, they had a lookout of Martinborough and I pulled over to take a picture. Where the hell was it? There was just sheep fields and some trees. It was flat and you could see for a ways, but I couldn't see any vineyards. Humm. I drove into town and sure enough, past some vineyards and wineries on the way in. I didn't stop in yet because I first wanted to get some food and a map of the place. After lunch, I decided to do half of the wineries with the remainder of ...