Blogs from Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 8

Today we got up and drove to Wine Tours by Bike and got our bikes, some water, helmets (they are required by law here), and a map of where to go. Also were some wine holders if you bought any bottles, and the service of them coming to pick up wine (if you bought more than your bike could hold!) Nigel was incredibly nice and helpful in helping us plan what route to take and which wineries to visit. He gave us the specialties of each winery and told us which wines were worth trying. It was really windy, so the biking wasn't very easy. We visited about 7 wineries (there were way more, but we ran out of time). They ranged from very small, family run places, to bigger, more commercial places. There were three ... 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

Monday morning came and Raphael and I were dragging our bags through the streets of Christchurch, looking for the Wicked Campervan offices. After I very hard 15 minute walk (I am out of practice at dragging around a backpack), we found the Wicked offices. After some paperwork and an introduction to our new home for the next 17 days we were picking up some food supplies. I have no camping experience and don't have two clues on what we really need and what we don't. We fueled up and hit the road, driving the streets of Christchurch without any idea which way north really was. So after some backtracking and a friendly guy at the traffic lights who told us which way was north we were on our way. While we were driving we decided we ... read more

I spent a wonderful week on a refuge island in the Marlborough Sounds assisting DOC in their valuable work in saving endangered spices. This was a week like no other. Once we got through the strict quarantine procedures on the mainland to make sure we weren't harboring any nasties who might wreak havoc on the protected island we were welcomed ashore with freshly baked gingerbread men, with our bright yellow fish bins of essentials! Firstly we were isolated. There were no more than 12 people on the relatively small island (see map for location) for the whole week that i was there, 2 Irish, 2 American (team international), 3 kiwi and one German (the island family)...with a few others visiting. Then there were the tens of thousands of frogs (Maud Island frogs - found no where ... read more

Hello people, its been a while since i last updated my blog and the time has know come for us to leave New Zealand and depart to Asia for our final leg of travel before returning home. Since Christmas and New year in Australia me and Barbs have been living and working in Blenheim at the top of the south island. As soon as we got back from our holiday in aus i was immediately back to work on the vineyards for a company called Focus Solutions. The vineyard work i was doing for them included bud rubbing, wire lifting, leaf plucking, fruit thinning, netting and finally young vine training (ie preparing the young vines to grow correctly and well) This work was over a number of different vineyards going as far out as the Wariu ... read more