Blogs from Queen Charlotte Sounds, Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

In summary - we survived! QCT conquered by the Browns.... Day 1 15kms - Ship Cove to Furneaux Lodge Woke to bitterly cold howling winds in Picton (130 km/hr). Early start to catch water taxi - unfortunately the seas were too rough to stop at a wildlife santuary island we were meant to visit, so it was straight to Ship Cove for us. The walk was enjoyable, tough uphill and steep downhill to start the day - then pretty easy after that. Some nice views of the Sounds and beautiful green rainforest. We arrived at Furneaux Lodge at around 2pm, had a hot choc and coffee on the verandah before heading to our waterfront studio to firstly stretch and then have a well deserved arvo nap! Dinner was in the lodge, 3 course meal with bottle ... read more

Our last stop on the south island was the Marlborough/Picton area. First we did some wine tasting near Blenheim. Neither of us are white wine drinkers but we had to try the world renowned Sauvignon Blanc from the region and it was actually pretty good (not that we would know any better anyways). We also treated ourselves to a gourmet lunch at the Allan Scott winery. The green-shelled mussels were huge and delicious! It was really nice because we don’t eat out much since our budget can’t really handle it over here. Hence why we don’t post much for food photos anymore since our cooking isn’t really photo-worthy… After our splurge in Blenheim, it was time to work off all those excess calories on the Queen Charlotte Track. At 71km long, it’s the longest track we’ve ... read more

Mel of the Buccaneer Lodge had been kind enough to rearrange room assignments to let me stay in my room until 1 p.m.. Regrettably, it was pouring buckets, so I did not try to walk out to visit the bay or the blue footbridge one last time. I did go to church, at Picton Community Baptist Church. The first hour of the service was worthwhile. There was a lot of singing to a guitar, with the lyrics projected on a movie screen to encourage the parishioners to join in. I joined in enthusiastically, though the only song I recognized was "Amazing Grace." There was some excuse for this, as the oldest copyright date on any of them was 1993. Even "Amazing Grace" had been altered by the interpolation of a new chorus between each verse. ... read more

Oct 23-25 with the Woods at their home in the Sounds - Queen Charlotte Sound This was a really special weekend for us with our very good friends, the Woods. It was so nice of them to make this trip happen for all of us, only their youngest, Blake, wasn't with us as it was his special weekend in Wellington with his grandparents. Oct 23 - We left Timaru at close to 4pm on Friday with a 6-7 hour drive ahead of us - through some of my most favorite areas of New Zealand, the Kaikoura coast. We made a dinner stop at Cheviot at a lovely art gallery cafe, Two Rivers. I drove our car with Kim, Syd, Avery and Jonte. Gregg, Dave, Graham and Alex were in their ute. In Kaikoura Gregg and Kim ... read more