And so we'd arrived at Blenheim, our last destination on New Zealand's south island. This town was conveniently situated a short drive north from Kaikoura and only 30 miles from the ferry terminal to the north island, more importantly it is slap bang in the middle of the Marlborough wine region where we were headed for a wine tasting tour.

Following our big night out in Kaikoura the most pressing issue of the day was finding a McDonalds for some hangover cure, after which we checked into the trusty Top10 Holiday Park before being picked up at noon by Kerry (Peaches & Cream) from the Bubbly Grape Company for our wine tasting tour. There was only one other person on our tour, a lady called Elizabeth from The Netherlands. We could have done our own tour using the camper van and the guidebook, but the inevitable argument over who would drive meant that we opted for a guided tour and we were very pleased with our selection as we were chauffeured through the Marlborough countryside visiting seven wineries and sampling around 6 wines at each. The region (which only became a commercial wine-producing region in the 70s) is better known for its white wines and we really enjoyed the sparkling wines, the sauvignon blancs, gewürztraminers and dessert wines. The red wines, it is safe to say did not do anything for us! It was grape picking season so we didn't get to see behind the scenes of the wineries, instead we were lucky enough to see the harvesting machines at work in the vineyards. They also make great chocolate and fudge in Marlborough, so much so that Gemma was tempted into buying some crème brulee fudge at NZ$6 for the tiniest amount. The way the lady weighed and cut it you would have thought it was confectionary gold! To top off a most enjoyable and indulgent day we also treated ourselves to a quite awesome cheeseboard which we ate in the sunny garden of Bouldervines winery looking out across the mountains that form the valley.

We both had such a lovely day, especially as we hadn't really expected that much from the tour and would certainly recommend it to anyone visiting this area.