Marlborough

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Hello again. We left Hanmer Springs and then drove to Kaikoura, a beautiful town on the coast. After lunch there, we drove up to Blenheim, the main town in the Marlborough wine region. We stayed at a very nice bed and breakfast that is also a vineyard. Yesterday, we went on a guided tour of many of the local wineries. We got to try a lot of wines that aren't available in the US. Unfortunately, we aren't bringing any home with us as shippings and taxes would have been $315, and that doesn't include the cost of the wine! This morning, the grapes were being picked at the vineyard where we stayed. It was pretty cool to watch, this big machine goes up and down the rows and shakes the grapes off of the bunches. Very effective and quick. Then we drove to Picton, where we are wandering around, waiting to get on our ferry to Wellington, where we'll be staying for the next 2 nights.

It really is too bad that we are not able to bring any wines home to share. Some of our favorite wineries were a small place called Huia, and a larger family vineyard called Saint Clair. Look for Saint Clair wines in the US, if you can. We went to some nice restaurants in Blenheim while we were here. Last night, I had some venison. Venison is actually quite an industry here in NZ. They ship a lot of it to Europe, but the restaurant we were at last night had it on the menu, and it was delicious! It went very well with the Cabernet/Merlot blend I had to drink. Soon we will be catching a ferry to Wellington. Sometime within the next few days we are going to see about having a traditional Maori fire pit dinner, complete with entertainment. More on that later.

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