Day 75 - Tues 13th Jan - Blenheim to Wellington

Time to say goodbye to the South Island now and head back up north.

Got to have another lie before the 11am bus to take me from Blenheim to Picton. From Picton I picked up the ferry to Wellington.

Got to Wellington about 5pm, went to the internet cafe for a few hours then off to bed.

Day 76 - Weds 14th Jan - Wellington to Napier

7.30am departure from Wellington to get the bus to Napier, via the obligatory and unneccassary bus stops on the way.

First stop was at Mount Bruce to have a look at the bird sanctuary. This wasn't totally unneccesary as I got to see Kiwis for the first (and only) time.

Then after that we stopped at the TUI brewery for a pie and pint. And I actually managed to drink a schooner of larger. Might be abel to drink the stuff from now on.

Got to Napier about 3pm. The town is all of art deco design after a lot of the town was destroyed in an earthquake in the 30s, so it is visually quite different from the rest of NZ.

Napier is also another wine region of NZ (Hawkes Bay), but this time more famous for chardonnay and pinot noir.

In the evening I did a virtual wine tasting (very intersting concept that I may steal for my imaginary wine shop at home so I won't explain any more in case anyone steals my stolen idea. Very clever though), didn't actually like any of the wines though.

Day 77 - Thurs 15th Jan - Napier

Had a bit of a lie in, then another internet morning - its amazing how long this blog and uploading photos takes!

At 1pm I headed out on a wine tour. We went to four places but unlike in Blenheim it was a set route that w had no influence over. We sat in the garden of one of them and had a bottle of wine and cheese board which was nice. The wines weren't as nice as in Blenheim and I certainly didn't feel inclined to purchase any and chip them home.

In the evening I went out to steak place on the sea front, then went to the hostel and watched a DVD (The Departed - excellent film which I hadn't seen before).