A vine time was had by all!

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We stayed at the cozy 'Shortbread Cottage' for a couple of nights in Nelson and met a nice bunch of people (including Graham and Kath, another travelling English pair). We wandered around the city including a visit to the jeweler who made 'The One Ring'. The weather was a bit mixed so in the afternoon we went to see 'The World of Wearable Art and Classic Cars' exhibition which as the name suggests is a collection of pieces of wearable art (past winners of the competition which is an annual NZ art extravaganza). Tagged on to this is a large room full of great cars including an old formula one car and a cute bubble car which we tried for size - yes, you guessed it - its tiny inside! Was everyone under 5ft in the 60's?

En route to South Island's main wine region, we drove along the picturesque Queen Charlotte Drive which skirts the beautiful Malborough Sounds and stopped at Picton, a pretty port town where you pick up the ferry to North Island. We had fish and chips by the water (we shared one anyway - we are backpackers after all!) and went to have a look at the Edwin Fox, the 9th oldest ship in the world (1853). It has been used as a troop carrier in the crimean war, to transport convicts to Australia before bringing free settlers to NZ and eventually helped to establish the the frozen meat trade though there is just a battered hull remaining now.

We stayed in Renwick, a town surrounded by row upon row of vines and spent a lovely sunny afternoon touring local wineries, the staff at 'Cloudy Bay' were especially helpful and I learnt quite a bit about vino. The area is known for its 'Sav Blanc' which was particularly good from the Wither Hills winery (2004) where we stopped on our way to Kaikoura the next day. Hmm, drinking wine at 10 in the morning... this was a strange start to my birthday weekend.

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