Heading north

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Tomorrow we leave the South for the North Island, so we've only about a week until we leave New Zealand. We've loved it here so far, but we're also quite looking forward to getting rid of the campervan now. There are only so many nights you can stay in semi-deserted campsites on the edge of town, before you long for a decent bed in a decent hotel smack bang in the heart of the city! Tonight we're staying in Blenheim, and despite being in the heart of wine country, this is a pretty small and dare I say it, backward place. In fact this is the second dodgy little place we've stayed since our long drive north. When we arrived we stayed in Motueka, which sounded OK but actually shut up for the night at about 8pm, and felt like a little bit of a ghost town. The next day we drove to Nelson, which, although still pretty laid back, was much nicer and had some life to it. We did a bit of admin, including getting haircuts. The poor lady almost had a heart attack when Rachel told her what she paid in London. Only my second snip of the trip - Rachel did mine last time in Malaysia which was quite a laugh. Another career should it ever be needed I think.
Yesterday we went kayaking and walking in Abel Tasman National Park, which was great fun. The kayaking was great, got to give that a go in Scotland when we're back, and the highlight was sea lions playing with us and swimming around and under the kayak. That evening we went to the cinema again, and saw Tropic Thunder - very funny, definitely go and see it. We also bumped into our kayak guide which show what a small place it is. Today we explored the vineyards of Marlborough, cycling around the area outside Blenheim. We went to a few very posh vineyards and sampled their delicious wines and had a great lunch at one of them too.
Tomorrow it's the ferry to Wellington and then on to New Plymouth where we're seeing an old school friend of Rachel's and a relative of mine in New Plymouth. Should be fun. Then it's up to Auckland before we fly to Oz. So it's a sad farewell to the beautiful lakes and mountains of New Zealand, but thanks but not again to the campervan.

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