Driving for three hours further north, we arrived in Blenheim in the late afternoon to do a little wine tasting in the regions (Marlborough) vineyards. We decided to save ourselves for the following day and made camp in one of the nearby DOC’s for the evening. The location was really nice and quiet but the solitude of having no one else camping nearby – safety in numbers and all that – was too much for Emma and she had to be nearly sedated to send her to sleep! Thankful the next morning we had not been frozen in, despite the large amount of frost everywhere in the DOC, we drove a little down the road to Watson’s Way Lodge in Renwick. Renwick is a little village next door to Blenheim and at the heart of Marlborough’s Vineyard country – how convenient! Watson’s Way Lodge we could see straight away would easily be one of the best places we would stay for the night, with great facilities to make you feel at home and bikes so you can visit the surrounding vineyards. Fortunately the bikes were nothing like the iron framed, buckle wheeled and single speed bike we had had in Cambodia, thus making 14km wine tasting expedition at the vineyards that much easier when bloated from all the wine. The vineyards were really welcoming, particularly because it was winter, one or two places that we had visited having received no tourists all day. All in all we visited at least six vineyards and one beer tasting venue – needless to say we were pretty tipsy by the end of it all and grateful to make it back to the lodge in one piece. During the day we hadn’t bothered with lunch (liquid diet), so we were pretty hungry when we got back and after rustling up some quick nosh, we settled down to eat in our communal yet private lounge (again the perks of traveling in the winter) to watch some LOTR films. Sadly Emma wasn’t up for seeing the trilogy, so I had to make do with just the fellowship of the ring as my LOTR’s fix. Making sure we got the most out of our Lodge stay, we left bang on check out and waved goodbye to the really hospitable owners Paul and Pam as we left. Nelson was about two hours down the road from Blenheim and on first impressions not the most exciting city we had come across so far on our travels. Having booked our Aqua Taxi to Anchorage and Torrent Bay along the Abel Tasman walking track (one of the most famous shoreline walking areas in the world) from the local iSite, we drove another hour and half further down the road near to where the aqua taxi pick-up would be. Having planned on freedom camping for the night to save on the pennies, we eventually managed to find somewhere on the side of the road that didn’t say NO CAMPING. Annoyingly our lucky find resulted in another campervan/car pulling up behind us! This wouldn’t have normally mattered, except it happened at 2:30am and in the darkness of night, we couldn’t tell if it was somebody trying to freak us out or not, especially when the van shook abnormally as if someone had just rocked it. Due to a combination of Emma’s paranoia and me needing to use the little boys room, I went out to investigate – tooled up course with our little kitchen knife – lol!
The aqua taxi that took us to our drop off point the next day, went via split apple rock, the postcard perfect advertisement that New Zealand uses to promote the North of the South Island, however it was too cold for us to have a dip in the water and have a copy cat photo. The walk itself back to Marahau from the drop off point was quite good and made more eventful by walking with a couple of people we had just met on the boat on the way over. The scenery was pretty spectacular but could have been even more so had the weather been that little cloudy. On the way back to Nelson to find our campsite for the night, we stopped off to buy a massive bag of kiwi fruits that were being sold at the side of the road just $2 (90p). Our choice of campsite was dependent on whether or not it had Sky TV lounge for the Eng vs USA game – unsurprisingly Emma didn’t get up for this and I wish I hadn’t either. A special deal at the campsite meant that we decided to bed down in Nelson for the next three nights before catching the ferry from Picton. Staying put for a while was nice as it made a change from rushing around the country all the time. In town over the few days we were there, we checked out the local brewery and visited the jewelers that made the “The one ring to rule them all” – Emma abused me for wanting to go here! The drive from Nelson to Picton on our last day on the South Island took us along the more scenic road of the Queen’s Charlotte Drive. Thanks to another sunny day, the scenery was made to look outstanding and fitting last memory of the South Island for us both. Unfortunately the ferry crossing from Picton wasn’t quite as memorable, especially for Emma, who despite living on the I.W and having done a thousand crossings in her life time, made full use of the ships sick bags – poor Emsy.