Blenheim, Kaikoura, Christchurch

So, i've now been in New Zealand for 3 weeks just about and in the last 2 i've seen a whole lot of the south island. As I said before I was meeting up with my parents in Blenheim on the 11th, which all went as planned (just about)... the flight was cancelled due to heavy fog and ice on the runway but eventually after a long wait in the airport it was rescheduled. So where to start really... I guess the first real outing to talk about was wine tasting in the Blenheim area (Marlborough region), i.e. the heart of wine in New Zealand and one of the epicentres in the world. Dad was feeling pretty poorly after another bout of dental surgery, dosed up to his eyes on painkillers, antibiotics etc. which left Mum and I to go vineyard touring by bike. We actually only made it to 3 vineyards on account of starting later than most would, but in the end we got to Bladen, Framingham and Huia. The people working at the cellar doors were really friendly and weren't pushing you to buy cases at all, so we tasted our way through from chardonnays to pinot gris via gewurstraminers and rieslings. Bladen and Framingham were amazing, Huia less so, but we came away slightly wobbly and with just one bottle of Framingham's noble riesling to show for ourselves.

The next morning we headed straight off for Kaikoura, the whale-watching capital of New Zealand. It took us 3 goes to book a whale watching tour that wasn't cancelled because of the rain and stormy seas but eventually we got out and, following a pretty bumpy boat trip out there, saw a pod of Dusky dolphins, a blue shark and of course a sperm whale. Everyone was feeling pretty good, as we had started to lose hope that the weather was going to stay good enough while we were there, so after returning from the trip we headed straight off for Christchurch down the coastal highway again.

The road to Christchurch was as beautiful as most we had seen, meandering along the coast the whole way down with heaps of amazing views of deserted beaches and little coves. The drive itself was only about 2 1/2 hours so we arrived in Christchurch by late afternoon and checked into the motel we had booked on the outskirts of town. We had a walk around the town (which Mum and Dad seemed to really like but I wasn't so keen on) and found ourselves a nice indian restaurant for dinner. Then, following a bit of a flukey facebook conversation with Ellie, I found out that her, Matt, Ace and Jenny were in Christchurch as well, staying in a hostel not far from where I was! So I headed straight down there, met them all and spent the rest of the evening with them playing pool and drinking beers. Lots of catching up was done and exchanging details about the rest of our trips as well as stories from up to that point.

From Christchurch I split from my parents again to be in Queenstown for the arrival of Charlotte, which by this point I was preettty excited about so spent most of my time doing nothing and just being excited/counting down hours. The plan was to spend 4 nights in Queenstown with her, the last 2 of which my parents would be around for as well... and from then on we were to holiday with them for about another 3 days and do Te Anau, Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound. Haven't got the internet time to do that now so I'll do it tommorrow... as well as adding photos from Charlotte's camera (because mine decided to stop working just after Christchurch).
So until then tataaa

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