Hello everyone!

It's been quite a while since we last wrote anything on here, and as we will soon be heading down the West coast of the South Island we figured it'd be a good time to update it before!

So to recent news, we have now finished working at Stoneleigh! After 8 weeks of work, including one of handpicking! We were handpicking grapes for both Stoneleigh and the other Montana vineyards around Blenheim, some Pinot, champagne, chardonnay and i'm sure some others that we just didn't know what we were picking! We both said that we didn't enjoy the week of handpicking as much as the other weeks, purely because we weren't just working with our small group as before, but instead, thrown together with probably 50+ Vanuatans (who are UNBELIEVABLY fast at everything, they literally run down the rows!) and with probably another 30+ people like us, New Zealanders etc. It was definitely an experience, as it was something new for both of us, but the days were long and when you can't really hold a conversation, it was definitely time for the unsociable option of the iPod! Having said that, it is a very interesting process and we've been able to go on a tour round the winery (Montana's - where the Stoneleigh grapes go no doubt!) today which was free when we flashed our pay slips! We were asked if we could help our too as there was a very large coach load of retired older people for a whistlestop tour of Blenheim. We were sorry to have left and we loved being there with our gang. we've left some of the guys with our email so hopefully they'll keep in touch with us.

We have also been to some of the other vineyard cellar doors around Blenheim for lots of tastings... our favourite is definitely Wither Hills, purely for the architecture. Dave's modelling his future house on it...as am i! I think we've both learned quite a lot about wine since we've been here, and starting to understand all the more interesting things about it, rather than just drinking it straight down!

Besides that, yesterday we went on a day trip to Kaikoura to do some whale watching. It was our third attempt at it... the first time we tried to go, our car broke down about a 1/3 of the way down so we turned round and started to drive back. We shortly after gave up and called the AA. Thankfully we'd got cover because i was a member in the UK back in Rotorua so we were very very happy about that! We got towed back and the next day it all seemed to work fine. Dave and the mechanic both reckon it must've been a stone in the CV joint (he'd have to explain that!) that must've fallen out during transit. Either way, Angela was back on the road. The second time we tried to go was on Monday, but with torrential rain and thunder and very strong winds (120km/h in Wellington) it was cancelled. Anyway, we made it with some beautiful weather and a very lucky trip out. We saw 2 separate sperm whales just at the right time, as they only surface for around 10-15 mins to rest and get air before diving again for up to and hour and a half. After that we saw a large pod of Dusky Dolphins which was an added bonus, however trying to get photos of them was rather more difficult than getting shots of the whales! Having said that, they dive very quickly, the tail disappearing within seconds and making the "tail shot" a fastest finger first event! Dave and I both got some good shots so he'll put his up soon too.

We are now in Nelson where the heavy rain and thunder have returned. We'll be bonecarving tomorrow for a day workshop and hopefully come away with a necklace or something. After that we'll be hoping to sea kayak around the Abel Tasman coast for a few days before heading south and down the west coast via Murchison (for the Buller Gorge and swing bridge), Hokitika, then down to the glaciers, before eventually making it to Wanaka and Queenstown. We'll then be looping back to Christchurch by the 9th or 10th to sell the car, before we fly back up to Auckland on the 24th, then to Adelaide on the 27th to start part 2 of the travelling adventure! We'll definitely do a blog and put some pictures up when we get to Wanaka/Queenstown, but internet and life (apparently) will be few and far between until then, so if we don't get back to your emails etc please don't be offended!

Lots of love to you all, we hope you are well and happy over there!

Rachel and David xxxx