A toast to Martinborough...

Sunday 15th - Tuesday 17th November, 2009

... and to the lovely Lisa and Frank (and not forgetting very cute Woody the dog) who put us up in the "impeccable"* Martinborough Village Campsite (*as quoted by The Rough Guide, and as experienced by Claire & Frank first hand!) I'd been looking forward to this stop ever since we had planned to come to New Zealand to see what Lisa and Frank had been up to since leaving the UK over 5.5 years ago. Over the last couple of years they've created a lovely campsite in a very nice town in the north island. Martinborough is known for it's upmarket wines, and we were lucky to coincide our arrival with "Toast Martinborough" a festival which basically entails a day of boozing around the local vineyards and sampling the local fare. Much to my dismay it was a little out of our travellers budget, so we spent the day sorting out Steely in the beautiful sunshine. Which, much to my amusement, soon turned to a very windy day - good for drying all that washing we had, not so good for the people who had not put their tents up properly the night before, despite the warning of strong winds! The crowd at the campsite had started the festivities of the day early, so as you can imagine there were a few very drunken lost souls coming back to their tent trashed by the wind - imagine the sights of Glastonbury only without the rain!

Despite the cost of the festival, it didn't stop us sampling some local wine and cheese on our last night with our very kind hosts Lisa & Frank. I can't remember what red wine I sampled with Lisa - well, I say sampled what I actually mean is enjoyed a few bottles of, which is probably why I can't remember what it was, but it was very nice - Lisa maybe you can jog my memory?! It didn't help that we we were gossiping so much that we missed the last food orders - thank goodness for the potato wedges from the chef and the cheese and ice cream stash that Lisa had back at the ranch!

C x