Marlborough wines

We were up a little later than planned but I didn't think that mattered too much as our wine tour that we were doing today wasn't until this afternoon. The hostel had a free breakfast of corn flakes and freshly baked scones which was delightful. Matt had chosen a walk for us to do but he hadn't thought about how long it would take. By the time we were out of the hostel and on our way we only had two hours left. The walk took three. This was a shame because the track took us right to the end of a point where seals were often seen frolicking on rocks. Instead we enjoyed the beatutiful views of Picton bay and the Queen Charlotte sounds, watching people sail and the big ferry boats come in and out. 

On our way back through the little town after the walk, we stopped for a lunch of fish and chips. It was only $5 each but they weren't the best. Maybe going cheap isn't always the greatest idea. We also picked up our new hire car before our tour because we wanted to head off later this evening to our next destination. We'd asked at the hostel about driving after the wine tour and they said we'd be absolutely fine. This meant we were able to leave the car at the hostel and wait to be picked up by our wine tour guide. We only had to wait about 10 minutes before Don turned up. He looked like he was in his late fifties and enjoyed a good bit of wine himself. We were the only passengers in Picton so he explained some things about himself and the tour on our way to Blenheim. We had a little mini tour of Blenheim which was a little town in the centre of Marlborough (the biggest town). After this we picked up the other two passengers (an American couple that looked like they could be in a movie) and headed on to our first winery. 

We visited four wineries in total  (Drylands, Nautilus, Cloudy Bay and Hunters) and were able to try a variety of wines such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot, sparkling wines and dessert wines. My favourite were the Nautilus Sauvignon Blanc and the Hunters dessert wine. We chose not to buy any as we were told we could get them back home. The American couple however were on their honeymoon so they treated themselves to at least four bottles. The wineries were all well looked after with beautiful buildings and some had little gardens as well as the vines surrounding them. A couple of the bigger places had huge tanks that could carry half a million litres of wine! 

When we'd finished at the wineries we were taken to a little chocolate place that made their own chocolates. We were given a taster of macadamia butter toffee crunch that was to die for. Unfortunately, it cost far too much so we couldn't buy any. Of course, the American couple bought two boxes. I felt so poor. We dropped them off first before doing the 45 minute journey back to the hostel. 

Before setting off in the car we walked to the supermarket to get some things for tea. This meant we didn't set off till 7pm but luckily our next destination was only 20 minutes down the road. The place was called Arowaki and sat at the start of the Queen Charlotte track. It was a YHA that we checked into but we were the only guests so we got a good discount and the whole place to ourselves. This made cooking very easy but our tea wasn't the most exciting. We had bacon left over from last night so we had that with toast, baked beans and an egg on top. It was rather comforting though. The hostel also had a hot tub and a movie room so we made use of all the facilities and watched the best exotic marigold hotel before getting some sleep.