On Tuesday, we took a flight from Sydney to Christchurch for our 8-day tour of New Zealand. As we write, we have only been in New Zealand for 2 days and have quickly decided that it's the prettiest place we've ever been. We drove straight from the airport at Christchurch to Blenheim, up the east cost of the South Island. The drive was beyond words; the landscape is so varied and spectacular it looks like it can't be real. In a 3-hour drive we saw rolling grassy hills, pine forests, black sand beaches, enormous snow-capped mountains and grapevine after grapevine. When we arrived in Blenheim, we went to our B&B (called The Bell Tower) which was basically the nicest place we've ever stayed at-- it's a farmhouse on a vineyard, but fully renovated in modern boutique B&B style. Cirsty and Steve were our hosts and they opened bottles of wine from the family vineyard (Dog Point), gave us snacks and we chatted for about 3 hours. We woke up to a misty morning and could see clouds hovering in the grapevines and mountains. Words can't describe it.
And not to go on about this place we stayed, or New Zealand for that matter, but we had a spectacular breakfast. It was super simple, but really delicious because it was so fresh. Plain whole-fat yogurt, homemade muesli, fresh strawberries and blueberries, homemade bread, fresh butter and preserves. We ate a little bit too much, but are still trying to re-nourish after the hike from hell.
Sadly, we left our place in Marlborough, promising to go back and to send everyone we know there. But, we did get to keep on moving through the South Island. We spent the morning wine tasting in Marlborough (famous for Sauvignon Blanc), and bought some wines to enjoy in our remaining B&Bs. We then ate lunch in Havelock, at the Mussel Pot and had steamed and grilled mussels. Incidentally, Havelock is the green lipped mussel capital of the world. We write this about 5 hours after lunch and are still full.
Finally, we made it to Nelson, which will be our home for the next 2 nights. Our B&B is lovely, but we're worried nothing will compare to the majesty of Blenheim and the Bell Tower. We've walked around Nelson, which is bohemian, casual, young and fun-- lots of backpackers everywhere. We're trying to decide what to do tomorrow, either breweries or kayaking, maybe both. Anyway, we'll keep you posted, hopefully by Christmas, but we're not sure when we'll get to the next internet access.
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