KATIE

Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th November

Following the last update in the pouring rain we caught the Tranz Scenic train from Greymouth to Christchurch, unfortunately not quite as scenic in the cloud and rain as it might have been otherwise but still some lovely views! We arrived in Christchurch late afternoon by which time the sun was out and it looked like the worst of the bad weather NZ had been experiencing was passing over. Checked into the Jailhouse Hotel, which is, as the name suggests, a converted old prison! They still had one cell as it was in the old days but the other cells had been converted to hostel rooms. It was pretty cool, even if the ladies toilet did smell dreadfully of damp! James will tell you about his fish and chip dinner I'm sure!

Tuesday we got on the Tranz Coastal scenic train and carried on round towards Blenheim. We'd planned to stop at Kaikoura for a whale trip which we'd booked for late morning but with the backup plan to carry on to Blenheim if the trip was cancelled. The weather was beautiful so we were pretty confident the trip would run. Having collected our bags from the train at Kaikoura we went to check in but found all the trips were cancelled due to rough seas, so it was a mad dash up the platform to the guard to see if we could get back on the train and carry on through to Blenheim before the whistle went and the train left! Luckily we did, and confused most of the passengers near us by arriving back in our seats! Spent the rest of the journey planning what to do next, where to go and for how long before returning for another try at Kaikoura. Decided to make our way to Renwick, from where you could do wine tours, and after a very windy wait for a bus arrived at our next hostel where we hired bikes and, armed with a small map, navigated our way to 3 wineries - Cloudy Bay, Domain Saint George and Nautilus. I have to say all were fantastic, extremely friendly and we tried more wines than I thought they'd ever let us. Had some really nice chats to the staff at each place too which made it all the more enjoyable. The wine here is great and I've discovered I like New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc....very much indeed!! Wobbled our way back in the strong winds, drank the bottle of Rose we'd just bought and tried to find the local pub. Slightly more difficult than finding the wineries and we were wondering if dinner would be another batch of cheese sandwiches (we've been having rather a lot of these for lunch recently, and to be honest were getting a bit fed up of them) but managed to find a nice pub where we were spared cheese sarnies again and I spent the evening with Daisy the cat on my lap. Very cute black cat with white paws..aaah.

Wednesday 26th November

Having looked at the bus timetable we discovered there aren't many buses a day that run from Renwick to Picton, but there appeared to be one at 8.10am, with the next one not until 11.45am which seemed a bit late. So, an early start it was, and a very cold one - the beautiful sun we'd had yesterday afternoon had completely disappeared and once again, the cloud was out in force. We waited, and waited, and waited - with a few conversations with locals around whether the 8am bus actually still ran or not. As it turned out, not. Managed to find a different bus company, Atomic buses, who had one at 10.55am, so spent the next couple of hours holed up in a local social club drinking coffee, playing yahtzee and chatting to the owners and cleaning staff. Oh, and playing with their 8 month old black Labrador, Sade, who was absolutely gorgeous! In the end, the owner wouldn't let us pay for anything and seemed to just be happy that we'd loved New Zealand so much and spent so much time talking to him and his wife (who had just spent 3 weeks in England visiting their son). Kiwi's are just so nice!

Anyway, we made it to Picton where we planned to stay the next 2 nights and get some hiking on the Queen Charlotte Track. Checked into the Villa hostel and got lots of info on different walks we could do that afternoon and booked a day hike on the Queen Charlotte track tomorrow. Chose to walk along to The Snout, which took us past a lovely little cove, Bob's Bay, through lovely paths with amazing lookouts at frequent intervals of the Marlborough Sounds - almost as soon as we started walking the sun broke through the clouds and we were rewarded with stunning views. The snout was about an 8 mile round trip and took us right out to the far end of one of the promontories in the area. Such a wonderful view when we got there and we were incredibly lucky with the weather. We started out absolutely freezing, cuddling take away coffees for warmth, and ended up stripping off to shorts and a t-shirt! The weather certainly is changeable here!

Thought we'd carry on the day on its healthy note and made a really good quiche salad for dinner, as James noted on his Facebook status, he's quite worried about himself. Having said that he did start the day with a fatty sausage roll while waiting for the bus!!

Thursday 27th and Friday 28th November

Another early start saw us waiting for the Cougar line boat at 7.30am at Picton Wharf, which would take us out to Ship Cove where we would start our day hike along the Queen Charlotte track, a 71km track which you can do parts of as day hikes, stay overnight and do part of the track, or do the whole track in 3 - 5 days. We only had time for the day hike which was 15km to the pickup point. We'd be dropped off at 9am and collected at 3pm so plenty of time! The promised sunshine didn't seem to be making much of an appearance, so once again, it was rain jackets on for the drizzly start, but at least it wasn't cold! It was quite amusing to get to the first lookout after a steep ascent of about 200m with a sign pointing out the views in either direction, but we couldn't see more than about 50 yards ahead of us due to the cloud cover - but then, as we've said any times before, it was very atmospheric walking through the mist! Walked through rain forest, lots of mud and water and spent an inordinate amount of time while James tried to photograph a bird- really enjoyable and arrived at Furneaux Lodge pick up point at 12.45pm which was just as well as we were starving and had promised ourselves we'd get there before stopping for our packed lunch! Had time to do the waterfall walk which was an hour's round trip and spent the next half an hour following signs that appeared to point us either straight through undergrowth, massive mud stretches or up waterfalls - but we religiously followed the signs and arrived at a beautiful waterfall, well worth the trek! Scrambled back in time for the boat home and cooked ourselves a lovely stir fry - god, aren't we good.....!! Even had time for a couple of drinks in a nice bar, and a pint and a game of cribbage in the local Scottish pub! I like the game, quite weird at first having never played it, but we had a few handy hints from a guy in the pub who knew how to play!

Friday morning, and we're now updating the blog (although not photos as you can't plug in the camera here) before catching the Tranz Coastal train back to Kaikoura to try again at the whale watching trip this afternoon. It's a beautiful day, so fingers crossed!!

JAMES

Well, it is true what they say - if it is raining on one side of the island, it is invariably dry on the other. It was chucking it down when we left Greymouth, but it stopped raining once we had crossed the mountains and were on the Canterbury Plains heading for Christchurch. However, this did mean that our views of what is reputedly one of the world's most scenic railway journeys extended to about 20 feet from the train window and not much more. Oh well.

On arrival in Christchurch we went straight to Jail. No further driving offences or other altercations with the law this time, but rather our night's accommodation was in a converted jail!! It was pretty cool, although, perhaps unsurprisingly the jail was in one of the less salubrious neighbourhoods. I guess a jail was never going to be in the nice part of town! So dining options were somewhat restricted (Katie's search for a salad was utterly fruitless) so we called in at the local Chinese run Fish & Chip shop. I have never had so much trouble getting someone to understand "Cod & Chips" in my life. You would have thought that it is a phrase the owner would have heard at least on a fairly regular basis! Something clearly got lost in the translation as she must have thought I said "I am Jesus Christ the Saviour, retuning to this planet in a Second Coming. I wish to re-enact the feeding of the 5000, so please give me the largest piece of fish known to man and all the chips you have. And please only charge me the equivalent of GBP2.20." The dinner she gave me could seriously have fed a family of four. I ate it all anyway.

Another early start the next day as we took the 7am train from Christchurch and headed north along the coast to Kaikoura, the whale watching capital of NZ. The weather was glorious and it was a stunning journey. Beaches and bright blue ocean to the right, snow-capped mountains to the left. The whale watching trips are very much at the mercy of the weather. Not only can they not run in rough seas, but also they need no cloud as they have spotter planes flying over the sea to find the whales. At least we had good weather, so we got our bags unloaded off the train and went to check in. Fortunately the train stopped for 5 minutes as when we went to check in we found to our disbelief that all trips that day were cancelled due to rough seas! Rough seas? I couldn't even see a wave! So dashed back to the train, confused the entire train staff by rapidly explaining that we now wished to continue on to Blenheim, and then confused our fellow passengers by returning, somewhat flustered, back to our seats after what was clearly the quickest sightseeing trip to a town ever!

Blenheim, or rather Renwick (about 10km west of Blenheim) is the centre of the Marlborough wine region. We hired some bikes from the hostel, and pedalled off for an afternoon round the wineries. All of them have a cellar door, with a bartender waiting to ply you with samples of their offerings. First up was Cloudy Bay. After the dozen or so noisy Japs had left, we had the place to ourselves, and sampled about 8 of their wines. And they were delicious, especially the sparkling wine. We made some purchases, loaded them into Katie's saddlebags (sadly they were unable to attach any to my bike) and headed to Domain Saint Georges. We hadn't heard of them, and they were slightly off the main road so I don't think they get too many visitors. We spent another hour or so there drinking another 8 samples and chatting to a French barkeep with an almighty tash. After a couple more purchases I cycled immaculately and Katie wobbled along to the Nautilus winery. Here we had yet another 8 samples, and chatted to the South African barman, until he started looking at his watch and intimating it was time to close - actually, he didn't shoo us out at all - like everyone in New Zealand, he was unbelievably friendly and only too happy for us to stay past closing and drink free wine! A fine bottle of rose was polished off back at the hostel and then we proceeded to get lost in a town consisting of about 3 roads! Remember kids, drink moderately, know your limits...

Due to someone maliciously embellishing the bus timetable at the hostel, we were waiting for a bus to Picton at 8.10 the next day, when in fact the first bus doesn't come through until 10.55. I am sure they were having a good chuckle to themselves! But this afforded us the chance to experience some more unstinting Kiwi generosity. The bus stop was just outside a bar. The door was open, so we wandered in an ordered a couple of coffees. We then whiled away the next couple of hours playing Yahtzee, drinking coffee and chatting to the owners. When it came to pay he wouldn't accept any money, but just wished us a good holiday. Very nice of him, especially as I think the door was only actually open whilst they did the cleaning!

Picton is a town of 4000 people (big for South Island!) and is the terminal for the ferries running to North Island. Most port towns in the UK are unmitigated sh!tholes (Dover, Portsmouth, Felixstowe, Harwich, Hull etc) but Picton is lovely. Situated at the end of the Marlborough Sounds, it is certainly in a picture book location. On our first afternoon, we walked the 4 or so miles out the The Snout, at the end of a promontory that runs out from the harbour. The weather was good, and the views were stunning. A bit too much up and down on the walk for my liking - I returned to Picton a big sweaty mess! Yesterday we took a boat out to Ship Cove, a cove on the opposite side of the Queen Charlotte Sound from the snout, and the head of the 71km Queen Charlotte Track which winds its way back towards Picton. We were dropped off at 9am, with the return journey arranged from the Ferneaux Lodge, 15km down the track, at 3pm. Being the super-fit individuals we are we reached the pickup point at 12.30, ate our lunch, had some coffee to feed Katie's addiction, and then did an hour's walk scrambling uphill through the rainforest to a lovely little waterfall.

Both walks were really lovely, good to get in some more tramping (as the Kiwi's call hiking) before we left. New Zealand really is a fantastic country. There is stunning scenery wherever you go, and very diverse scenery too. And the people are undoubtedly the friendliest people I have come across. Generous, and genuinely interested to talk about New Zealand, the UK (most have lived in Blighty for a while), and anything else.

Just about to take the train back to Kaikoura now, for the ill-fated whale watching trip. The sun is shining, there is now wind, surely it will run today!?!?