Today we decided to do our own thing. After almost 2 months together every single day it was time to have a break!

Stephen signed up for a wine tasting tour since we were in Malborough, one of NZ's premier wine making regions. I decided to go shopping and for a facial. Sadly, when I got into town I realised that a facial wouldn't be an option and there were very few shops to wander through. It was a bit of a dull day! It was also really cold and drizzly so not really the sort of weather you want to be out in so it wasn't long before I was back in the campervan drinking tea and finishing my book.

(sw) the wine tasting tour... Now I know that I have some bad reputations for wine tasting but this time I decided to take it marginally more seriously. I joined the mini bus at the camp site with Jorben and Hannaken (both dutch so sorry for any misspelling). We then joined up with another group of five who had started earlier on the tour and our first stop was Cloudy Bay. We had five free samples and the taste definitely improved with price, but I was not persuaded to part with cash. The second stop was Forest Wines where the women at the vineyard explained about the different way they grow the grapes on the vines. All very interesting - but the wine was not. Still I had now met most of the people on the tour being an interesting mixture of Finnish, French, Australian and NZ'ers.

The third place was called Nautilus. The wine was okay but not that impressive... The fourth place was called Seresin where the grapes were all hand picked (as denoted on their bottles by the open palm sign). They also had a good track record of reusing any natural waste as compost for next years harvest. After a few tastings we had a quick tour of the grape collection, pressing and fermenting process - all in all very impressive. The last place (are you all still impressed that I can remember the names?) was called Saint Clair and finally I was persuaded to part with cash on a cheeky little sav. Full of flavour with a great finish. A good end to the tour ....