After an exhausting day, we decided we needed some relaxation in the Marlborough wine region, which is at the top of the South Island. The area is named after the Duke Of Marlborough, hence one of the main towns is called Blenheim, which is where he lives in the UK. Blenheim is quite a big town, and is pretty as it's surrounded by vineyards and year-round sunshine. The main reason for our stop though was to visit the Cloudy Bay vineyard, which is one of th...

As much as we like seeing beautiful and unique scenery, we don't always look forward to the twenty kilometre treks that come with them. That was one of the great things about the US, as they put roads right next to everything so you can drive up, lean out of your air-conditioned car and take some pictures. Well, we're not that lazy really. We do enjoy the walks, but sometimes you can walk for seven hours and only have one or two things to look at, but in ...

We arrived on the South Island of New Zealand after a three hour ferry ride through Queen Charlotte Sound in the Marlborough Sounds, which are valleys carved out by the sea to leave spectacular scenery of tree-covered islets as far as you can see. It was ice-cold though, which according to reliable sources we should have more of now we are on the South Island. First stop was Picton, a small town where the ferry pulls into but not much else, so we drove on to N...

After leaving Masterton we headed for Wellington. Here we would get the ferry over to Picton on the south island. The weather in Wellington wasn't very good. There were severe winds and it was raining for most of the time we were there. Our first stop was the Museum of New Zealand called Te Papa. This was very interesting and also free which is always a bonus when travelling the world! The museum had various exhibits seemed like there was something for e...

Well we arrived in Masterton to visit Allison's Uncle Eddie and Jude.  Masterton is a really nice town, surrounded by farmland and mountains.  It was good to get a taste of real Kiwi life, as on our first day there we were welcomed with a few cold beers and a barbie, which most Kiwi's live on.  They like their meat! My uncle has his own courier's business, so we followed him on his daily postie run, which is all really picturesque. ...