Crossing over from North to South

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So we travelled down to Wellington to catch the ferry across to the South Island, it seems like we have done so much already and have heard there is even more to see in the South so we are very much looking forward to the next stage of our Journey.

Wellington is a harbour town and quite a bustling little city we didnt really get to see too much of it as we arrived late and caught the 2 o'clock ferry. The road we stayed on (Cuba Street) was great with loads of nice bars and restaurants, it seems to be where the students all hang out.

The ferry journey across was pretty amazing, it takes 2 and 1/2 hours and as you get about an hour away from the South Island you start to see all the coves and little beaches around the headland. There are houses that seem to have no roads to reach them so must be only accessable by boat. We stood out on the deck but it was very windy, I was wearing a skirt and forgot how strong the wind was so the whole boat got a good view as my skirt blew up around me - Shenton thought this was very funny - I didn't....

The first stop in the South is one I have been looking forward to, that is Blenheim. Here we are going to do a wine route and one of the wineries is Cloudy Bay (my favourite wine along with Oyster Bay but this one does not do tastings).

The day started at Spy Valley Winery it is called spy valley as there are some military listening posts up the road. Well we must have had about 7 different wines here and I bought a bottle of the dessert wine becuase it was so lovely.

The next winery was a bio dinamic winery, this means they use all kinds of weird and wonderful ways to make the grapes taste better, like they take the horns from cows, fill them with crystals, bury them in the ground and dig them up at the full moon. After this they sprinkle the crystals around the vines and this is meant to add to the flavour. I must admit the wines did taste different, not sure if it was in a good way or not! This one was called Serisin and is owned by Micheal Serasin who was the cinematographer on Harry Potter film.

At the third winery we had lunch under a canopy outside in the vineyard, this was great but the wines were starting to all taste the same. I think it may have been down to the fact that there was no spitting going on!

Another winery, Wither Hills, - more wine it really was surely the same wine now in each glass. The best thing about this winery was the bean bags outside the only probelm was trying to get up out of them to move to the next place.

The last stop was Cloudy Bay, as I said I was really looking forward to this one, the problem was by the time we arrived we had had so much wine our tongues were swollen and we really could not tell if the flavour was peach, vanilla or pepper. To be honest I think I would have found it difficult to tell the difference between a red, white or even a glass of lemonade by that point.

The last stop was a chocolate factory to round off a lovely day.

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Photos

Spy Valley
Sculpture outside the winery

Wine route
Here we still look sober....

Wine route
Oh no I think its all over

Comments

[Lou]

Laughing so much
I have just been reading your blogs and I have been laughing so much I nearly spat my drink all over my laptop. I loved this one about the vineyards. Especially the bit about not being able to tell, whether it was red, white or lemonade and that there wasn't much spitting going on. I'm glad you are having a fantastic time, I am very jealous as I sit in an office in Manchester .... speak to you soon. Lou xx