Sunday 20 March 2016

Wine Country

We are now on our final day in the South Island, having travelled from Nelson to Renwick, a journey of about 2 hours, allowing us a stop and walk at Pelorus Bridge where 'The Hobbit' was partly filmed.

Renwick is in the heart of the Marlborough wine producing area and therefore a complete contrast in terms of landscape. During the first afternoon/evening we walked across some local salt marshes which were stunning and full of birdlife. The walk took us to the wreck of the Waverley - a supply ship originally used to support the gold mining efforts on the West Coast. Once it was no longer needed it was brought to this coast to be 'scuttled' to support sea defences in the 1930's, but it ran adrift and was left in no more than a few feet of water. In WW2 it was used for target practice. Below you can play 'spot the wreck'.


We had two full days in wine country so day one was spent travelling to and from the port of Picton on two amazing scenic routes, again taking us to remote coves and seeing unreal views. We combined the same with a couple of great walks and had a fine old day. A couple of the more famous bays were Cloudy Bay and Monkey Bay. The view below is Queen Charlotte Sound and that's the start of our route by ferry on Tuesday as we head to Wellington. The second picture is our Tour Director at Anakiwa.



Today we have had a very chilled day walking from our apartment to three wineries and undertaking a wine tasting experiment to see if we like it. The three we visited were Forrest, Framingham's and Wairau River, where we also had a beautiful lunch in a wonderful location. We were invited to sample the grapes and walk freely through the vineyard. The weather, service, wine and food were exceptional. The conclusion we arrived at is we quite like wine, but just to make sure we bought a bottle back for tonight.

Below, you can see Maggie handling a very tough Monday tasting mission at Wairau River (we didn't want to leave) and the second picture is a cellar at Framingham's.



So its goodbye to the South Island in the morning with a whole load of memories to savour. My conclusion is if you like being outside, walking, views to die for, people who consistently want to help you, good wine, mountains, glaciers, sport of any kind (biking/rugby/extreme stuff like golf), very fine craft beers and quiet roads, it might be worth be thinking about running away and coming here. Bring on the North Island!!!!!!

1 comment:

  1. Looking forward to the north side. Happy easter and lots of love to you both! Xxx

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