Blenheim April 8 - 11

Pushing our luck once again, we left the camp much later than the supposed check out time (not that they have anything to clean up once you leave) and headed towards Blenheim. As is the case for most of New Zealand it was another picturesque drive. We arrived in Blenheim mid afternoon and had a wander around the town centre. Blenheim is in the heart of the Marlborough wine region and is basically the wine capital of NZ and renowned world-wide for its Sauvignon-Blanc. Blenheim is also home to more of the Sandilands' family. John (my dad's cousin) and his daughter and son-in-law.

After a small walk around the town, looking at a beautiful wooden church, perusing a book store for bargains and finding our camper after forgetting where we parked we headed out to the cheaper holiday park for the night. On arrival we weren't very keen on the place as it seemed like it was full of long termers. It was only for one night so we stuck it out anyway!

On Saturday morning we headed over to John's house. John is 86 years old and leads a very active lifestyle. More active than us sometimes I think. He lives alone and works part time as a volunteer guide at the Omaka Heritage Aviation Centre as well as flying planes in his spare time. He gained his licence a couple of years ago and tries to fly once or twice a week! Not bad hey! He really is so active and well for his age and a genuinely lovely man. So we had tea and cake, English style, caught up on a few things, looked at the family tree to fill in some gaps. John's daughter and son-in-law Barbara and Andy came over to meet us and then John took us out in his car to some other parts of the town. We had a look at a heritage area, basically they moved all the old buildings out of the town into one area. So, here you have a tractor museum and various old shops all which contain items from years ago. There's even a miniature railway still in use which goes along a 5km track.

In the afternoon we went to Barbara's house and parked up for which turned out to be a couple of days as Barbara and Andy kindly invited us into their home and provided us with a real bed for two nights. Bliss! Andy works part-time as a driver/tour guide for one of the local wine tour companies and decided to have a busman's holiday by taking the family on an afternoon tour of the vineyards/wineries. We went to a few different places, all of which offer free tastings of 5-9 wines! Needless to say that they went to our head and the final winery we visited ideally had a cafe where we indulged in some great cake! We also went to a local chocolate factory where we could easily have spent a vast amount of money but sufficed for the free tastings instead. We finished our wine tour feeling tipsy but holding some great dessert wine and some secret recipe sauce which will make every meal delicious when we get back home (well, for as long as it lasts anyway). That evening the five of us went back to Barbara and Andy's house for chinese take away and of course more wine! We then climbed into a huge double bed for a nice relaxing sleep.

Sunday was another early start for us, but well worth it! We went to the Blenheim Farmer's Market for an awesome omelette breakfast and to once again see the wonders that local farmers produce. John was working at the Aviation Museum this morning so we also headed over there to take a look. It has only been open around 4 years and holds a large amount of memorabilia from WWI along with many replica planes. All of the displays involving the planes we done by the Weta Studios making it amazingly realistic. It is a great museum with various types of displays which also include many stories and anecdotes from some of the best Air Force pilots that fought in the war.

In the afternoon John was going to the opera, so Barbara and Andy took us on another little tour. This time we went out to another valley for some great views - some places you could even see the North Island. We went to see the pink salt lakes and huge salt piles, which were huge and also produce the majority of NZ's salt as well as much of it being exported. We were also lucky enough to see some of the grapes being harvested by the huge machines just next to the road which was really cool to watch.

Our tour continued by visiting the largest vineyard/winery in the region - Yealand's Estate. He owns 1000 hectares of vineyards which go as far as the eye can see. Yealand's also prides itself on becoming fully sustainable with time, currently using many methods and bringing more into place, including cloning mini sheep so that they eat the grass without being big enough to eat the grapes. This of course means that man is no longer needed as a way of cutting the grass! We left here with a nice bottle of riesling before heading over the the smallest vineyard in the region. I believe this was about 1.5 hectares in size and is called 'Gordon Bridge'. We loved some of the wine here but it was a bit too expensive for us backpackers. His wine is also enjoyed by the Brits, especially at exclusive places in London such as 'The Sugar Club'.

We then went for a roast dinner at the local RSA club, the second roast of our travels, which tasted so good it was finished within minutes. John came over in the evening and we indulged in peach schnapps covered strawberries with ice-cream. Yummy! We then showed John how skype worked and he got to say hello to my parents.

On the Monday morning we said goodbye to everyone and expressed our gratitude at being taken in at the last minute to Barbara and Andy's home and being shown the sites. We headed over to Picton and I actually felt a bit sad leaving the Sandilands' knowing that I may never get to see them again - asides from the wonders of skype of course!