After a very exciting morning we continued on the road (and we wonder how we went through so much petrol!) North to Blenheim, aka Marlborough Wine Region! We arrived there in good time and popped into the isite to ask where the closest camping spot was to Renwick (where there were many many vineyards all close together!) We were told a backpackers called Watsons Way also had a few people camp there.
Paid in full and we were really happy with the place, was nice staying somewhere more backpackery than the camping places and was a really good place. We knocked up a hearty late lunch, while working out our assault plan on the vineyards! They all closed around 4.30 so we had a couple of hours to squeeze in a couple! James was happy to drive and so we headed to the first on our list Spy Valley, famous for its architecture. Was a really interesting building, the type I could imagine in one of my materials books! And we had our first experience of wine tasting, large glasses of every wine poured for free for you to enjoy! The woman there was Sue, originally from Southampton, then moved down to..….Tauro I think it was in Devon. She’d lived in NZ for abut 5 years, and loved the space, and gave us a proper mum type lecture on how dangerous the ozone layer is down here! (After many glasses of wine!) We had a great time there, the best places are definitely the places where you meet people! With high standards to follow we set off to our next place, Highfields Estate which was ok, only the start of us getting picky over free wine!
The next day we had a whole day planned on our bikes…. It was the best way to fit in lots without one of us drink driving! Although the cycling almost killed me! We fitted in lots more, and were really getting to know what we liked, and even more, know what we didn’t like!! It was a great day though and met lots more interesting people. We finished it off by picking up fish and chips on the way home, it only being about 5oclock, but well full of alcohol! they were sooooo good, the blue cod in new zealand is fantastic and it was well appreciated!
The next day we were to head north, but of course, there’s always time to fit a couple more wineries in in the morning!! We went to 2, probably the best 2 out of them all, Forrest and Bladen, both reallllly good wine!! Also both very small wineries, so the hardest to get in England!
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