New Zealand - Kaikoura

Translated from Maori to English Kaikoura means "Eat Crayfish" it is one of the best places in the universe for Crayfish apparently, unfortunately I don't eat any fish which isn't tuna and Mark has a allergy to fish which makes his face explode - he wasn't sure if this was covered in his travel insurance so decided best not to risk it.

It wasn't all bad though, Kaikoura is also famous for it's whale watching so we were straight down the whale watching centre waiting to board our vessel with multiple like minded nature enthusiasts. Typical of New Zealand the tour was exceptionally well organised, our vessel was brand-spanking new and fully blinged out with all the very latest whale located gadgetry.

We cruised out for about 15 minutes as the guide set our expectations, on average 1 or 2 whales are spotted per trip, if we got a "no show" (highly likely given our track record) a 80% discount is given. No fear though, the GPS had already picked up our first candidate and it was a millions knots ahead before it disappeared under the surface again.

There she goes

The whales appear every 45 to 50 minutes to breath on the surface for roughly 10 mins before they dive down again. You only see 10% of the whale above the water but they are enormous measuring up to 60 feet long and weighing in at a colossal 40 tons - it was hard to believe we were so close. The guide got on the mic after a few minutes and advised us to get our camera's ready "She's going down" and then the whale took a massive dive and flung it's tail in the air for the money shot. We were lucky enough to see a further two whales so we finished our stint in Kaikoura mission accomplished.

Picton & Nelson.

We continued north to Picton to book our ferry to the South Island in a weeks time and spent two day's doing some walking around the Queen Charlotte track.

Picton scenery

Nelson was much the same although we thought it may be abit more lively. We took the opportunity to book some flights to Raratonga for Xmas and toyed with the idea of making a trip to Abel Tasman National Park only to discover it was a pricey affair - cue brainwave.

Renwick - Marlborough wine region.

We realised that we would pass through a tiny village called Renwick on our way back to Picton to catch our ferry and decided to spend two days doing the wineries. The Marlborough wine region is New Zealand's most important wine area famous for its Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.

Our first stop in Renwick

The lovely lady at our hostel gave us a map of all the wineries in the region, furnished us with two bikes and sent us on our merry way. Our first stop - Cloudy Bay probably the most well known in the UK (well to an amateur like me) and incidentally my Mum's tipple of choice. The Holland clan have endured many a cloudy head after a bender on the Cloudy Bay. Well it wasn't long before we were swilling, smelling and slurping like proper wino's. We visited six wineries in total sampling Chardonnay's, Pinot Noir, Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grit. To think we spent 8 weeks in Oz drinking goon by the gallon is criminal - we've come a long way!

So we had a great day getting drunk for free - it was a fitting end to a great month in the South Island.

Our next stop - Wellington.