The Tongariro Crossing certainly lived up to its reputation - it was such a spectacular and varied walk, crossing volcanic rocks and craters, thermal pools and vents, alpine vegetation and finally native forest, all this and panoramic views stretching for miles. On Monday (21st) we headed south and found ourselves in the wine region of Martinborough - wonder how that happened! Spent a pleasant afternoon tasting some great "savvies" as they call them here (sauvignon blanc). It was a good way to combat the heat and humidity brought on by Cyclone Funa which hit further north. On Tuesday we drove to Wellington where we took a Movie Tour to Lord of the Rings locations which was thoroughly entertaining, especially as the wind got up to gale force with some rain thrown in, not to mention the heavy sea spray as we drove around Wellington Harbour - again this was as a result of Cyclone Funa! Fortunately the weather calmed down for our early morning crossing to the South Island on Wednesday and we were able to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Marlborough Sound as we glided through the crystal waters for the final part of the crossing. No sooner than we had we arrived on the South Island, we were fully installed at Blenheim in the heart of the Marlborough Wine Region and sampling wines at Cloudy Bay, Montana and Whitehaven wineries. This was just the practice run for Thursday when we hired bicycles and took ourselves on a wine tour and forced ourselves to try the "savvies" and pinot noirs in 8 different wineries, some well known and some boutique. Today we're heading towards Abel Tasman N.P. for some more tramping.

Kia ora