View from our walk

Picton

Strange building

Herb garden

Botanic gardens

Cable car

View from cable car

Trolls

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. 

The south

I felt much better after a good nights sleep and was ready to leave Wellington and head for South Island. However, our ferry wasn't until the afternoon so we decided to spend the morning looking round town some more. We started at the post office because Matt wanted to send a parcel but for some reason post offices aren't open on Saturdays in New Zealand, not even for the morning. Instead we went to the Wellington museum mainly for the use of wifi. It did have a nice timeline on one of the floors though that explained events that occurred in Wellington throughout the 20th century. 

After that we walked round a bit trying to find somewhere for a cheap sandwich and managed to find a good place. I had a chicken, avocado and spicy apricot sauce panini which was very tasty. We felt it was time to go get our bags and catch a bus to the ferry after food. We had to get off the bus at the train station and realised we'd need another bus to the ferry terminal but unfortunately we were too late. We didn't realise this at the time but we needed to be at the ferry 45 minutes early. This meant the bus had already left the train station. Luckily a nice lady at the station help desk told us to get the bus that was dropping off passengers to drive back to the ferry with us. The bus driver wasn't the happiest with us but we got to the ferry just in time to check our big bags in and board the ferry as everyone else just started to walk on. I'm not a fan of leaving it to the last minute but it was nice not waiting. The panic of getting there wasn't so nice though. 

After a nice hot chocolate and a calm sit down the ferry set off although it was around half an hour late. I thought it was quite smooth until we got out of the bay; I'm not a fan of ferries anymore. I felt so sick and it didn't help that some old man was throwing up loudly in a bag not far from us and a baby right next to us threw up on its mother. I managed to drift off and slept through the worst of it meaning when I woke up it was rather pleasant with stunning views of the Queen Charlotte sounds coming into Picton. Eventually, we arrived in Picton and go off the ferry. It was dark by this time and we hadn't got anywhere to stay. Luckily there were some backpacker places picking up guests so we went over and asked somewhere called Tombstone backpackers if they had any spare beds. Lucky for us they did and so we hopped in the minibus and five minutes later were checking in. 

We hadn't got any food so we had to quickly run to the supermarket before it closed. Bacon was cheap so we had carbonara which wasn't the best. The sauce tasted a little odd. But the hostel was lovely and by some coincidence there was a girl we'd gone to Bromo (Indonesia) with at the hostel! We chatted to her for a while and took advantage of the free hot tub. South island is good so far.