A very splendid wine tour

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The ferry crossing to the south was a bit more scenic than crossing the Channel as the boat crosses through the Marlborough Sounds for the last hour of the journey so all around there were huge green hills. It was too windy to stay out on deck though - my sunglasses nearly blew off my head.

The rain and wind followed us from the north island so our first two days in Picton were spent wrapped up in the hostel. Unfortunately we had picked another dive of a hostel and this one had a very strange tenant who seemed to work there - he spent the whole time hogging the TV and barking questions at us. I think he had recently been in prison judging by his lack of people skills. Maybe I'm a bit harsh but even Simon agreed he was a bit odd.

To cheer ourselves up we booked on to a wine tour into the Marlborough wine region. This was fabulous. Our guide, Gary, was really lovely and very knowledgeable. And as a further bonus - the sun came out! He drove us to Lawson's Dry Hills winery first which was a good place to start as the lady running the tasting told us how to swill the wine around the glass before sticking our nose in to smell the bouquet. Then we were instructed to taste the wine and tip the rest away. What a waste.

We picked up another couple (Americans) for the tour before heading to the next winery. The couple were in their 50s and at first very quiet and serious but as we got through more tastings they started to get a bit tipsy ("I only usually have one glass with a meal" said the woman) and became fun.

The tastings were a lot of fun. It was good to try different types of wine (although they all taste pretty much the same to me) and we got to sample a type of wine called Gewurztraminer which we had never heard of before. It's supposed to be drunk with Asian food and is quite tart. We weren't fans. But we did enjoy the dessert wines surprisingly. There was one at Highfield Estate which looked like liquid gold and was gorgeous. I was also a big fan of their champagne.

When sampling the wines we were taken through a list from top to bottom starting with Sauvignon Blanc (what the region is most famous for) and leading through to the dessert wine via Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Reisling and reds. We visited six vineyards (the others were Isabel, Villa Maria Framingham and Bouldevines) and were pretty tipsy by the end of this. At the last winery (Bouldevines) we were able to sample flavoured olive oils (the American woman couldn't get enough of the bread - I think she had the drunk munchies) and salad dressings. There was also the chance to try flavoured liquers and alcoholic creams. We were invited to choose anything from the shelf to try and were given a full shot of each - it was like a free bar. We started with a shooter made from chocolate orange liquer with chocolate alcoholic cream on top. Our favourite liquer was blackcurrant which tasted like Ribena and I really liked the espresso cream. We also sampled the gin which has been voted the best gin in the world beating the likes of Bombay Sapphire. It tasted good to us.

It was a lovely day out and the wine country is very pretty - lots of vines surrounded by mountains in the distance. The growers have to be very careful their crops don't get ruined by frost so have helicopters on standby and if a frost is predicted the choppers fly over the vines to keep the air moving and prevent a ground frost from settling. We were told that on a frosty morning there could be over 100 helicopters hovering over the valley. So it wasn't just an excuse to get drunk - we did learn things too!

On our last morning in Picton the sun came out so we took the opportunity to do one of the bush walks up into the hills to get a good view of the Sounds. The scenery is amazing it's just a shame our photos don't do justice to the many different shades of blue in the water and green of the bush.

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