Heading north.

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I'm back in Wellington now - after Queenstown, I stopped in Christchurch, Kaikoura, Blenheim and Picton before heading back over the Strait to the north island.
The days have been relatively uneventful, apart from highlights listed below, filled mainly with forward planning for next stages of the trip and taking exploratory walks around the various towns. Weather wise things have taken a turn - it is proper Autumn in New Zealand now, so the temperature has cooled and the cloud has thickened a bit. As I write this, New Zealand is pretty much covered in thick rain cloud! Hopefully it won't last...

Christchurch - not my favourite NZ spot. The centre has some pretty enough spots (very English), but I didn't find much else to recommend it - and of course, there are no mountains within sight!
Kaikoura - a stop for whale-watching or dolphin swimming, neither of which were really happening, so it was a case of killing time in Kaikoura.
Blenheim - I had imagined Blenheim to be a lush, green, small NZ town. I was pretty wide of the mark - the outskirts are industrial and the centre reminded me somewhat of Kingston-upon-Thames! But its a great base for a wine tour...I joined a Bubbly Grape tour group - all 2 of us plus the guide - for a trip around the Marlborough wineries. We went to a couple of the large ones, like Montana and Cloudy Bay, as well as some smaller boutique or family run places - a new favourite, although not available in the UK, was Bladen's wines...hmm.
The day started at 10 and finished at 4 so we were a little blurry by the end but nothing too shameful. It will be nice to be able to picture some of the origins of the wine I drink back home.
Picton - a small ferry terminal town, but its quite sweet in its way, boasting the "4th best bakery in New Zealand" and more importantly, its a great base for walking the Queen Charlotte track. The whole walk is 3 or 4 days - I just did one day's worth, about 20 km. The views of the Marlborough sounds in the early morning were beautiful, particularly when I was above the cloud which hadn't yet dispersed. A wonderful walk.

The next day I took the ferry back to the north - it was rather bumpier this time, and I had to focus quite hard on the horizon for the middle part of the journey. But I made it safely to Wellington, where I'm staying again with my friend Janina and her kind housemates.
I've not done much in the way of sightseeing - been spending time with the locals and planning ahead for the USA part of my trip. Its hard to believe I've got just a week and a half left in New Zealand - and I will be sad to leave. But I'm also excited about the next couple of legs - a week in Fiji and then California, here I come.

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Photos

Mighty Mighty
A funky Wellington bar