Day 178 New Zealand, Kiakoura to Blenheim.

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Hello Everyone,



We woke up in the Taylor Dam free campervan site, a really quiet place and of course we didn’t have the worries of being fined in the morning. We drove back into Blenheim to go to the I-site to pick up a wine map and to see the best way of doing the open cellar doors with bikes and where to park up.



The lady at the I-site was very informative and booked everything up for us. We had a few options but most didn’t cater for the fact that we needed to park up where we could stay for the night, as I wouldn’t be able to drive again after all the wine! So the best, and in fact cheapest option was to book into ‘Watsons Way’ campervan site and backpackers. This was £18/$35 each and we got to park up, have use of the kitchen, shower and common room facilities. We could also have access to bikes for the day, use the washing machine for only £1 and to use their tennis courts. The campsite is on the 14km circular loop of more vineyards than you could stomach- literally I leaned the hard way, but the process was great fun. The first place we stopped was actually a $5 brewery MOA (beer before wine –feel fine and all that). We then spent all afternoon tasting wines and Champagne (or more correctly: fizzy wines). There were many cellar doors of top end wines that were $5-10 for the tasting but as we love it all we decided just to go to the free cellar doors (which the owner of Watsons Way showed us on a map). Each tasting offered between 5-8 tastings, so after 10 vineyards I was very drunk! I even fell off my bike, which we thought was hilarious! I have a muddy coat now, which isn’t quite as funny. We even received the Golden Mile Medal for making around 5 vineyards!! We were on a role so we carried on to in fact receive two medals!



So unfortunately Riesling doesn’t taste nearly as good on the way back up, so not long after we got back I was asleep. I was annoyed at myself because it was the first time we were in a campsite, and the first opportunity we have had since being in NZ where we can talk to others in the evening. It’s hard in free sites as usually there isn’t anyone else there or even when there is, it is too cold to socialise outside.



Neil definitely showed his true ‘keeper’ potential tonight after I was too drunk to do anything… he did all the clothe washing, gave me a sick bowl and emptied it out, made me some pate and bread and just lots of TLC.



Good night





V&N xxx

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