Blenheim

15th December 2009 We left Blenheim this morning without even having a taste of wine apart from the bottle of Australian red that we had last night - probably not the done thing, but we’ve never been sticklers for tradition :). The rows of vines morphed into rolling countryside once more which finally met the sea in Picton. It was another lovely day so we parked up and went for a walk across the harbour, climbing up to get wonderful views looking back to the ferry terminal and further out across the sounds before we came to a small bay where crystal clear waters lapped the shore. We were walking for about an hour and a half which gave us a great opportunity to see more of Picton, which actually seems like a nice place, rather than leaving New Zealand with the impression that it was a cold, dreary place with a ferry terminal, which is what we thought when we first came in on the ferry about 4 weeks ago. ...

14th December 2009 About three weeks ago, we booked another hire car for the rest of our time in New Zealand. We booked through a company we found on the internet and were a little unsure about whether it would actually come through as the emails and phone calls were a little relaxed, but I guess that’s just the laid-backness of the country because at 8.30 prompt this morning they picked us up as arranged. We had originally booked another Starlett, but they had given us a slightly bigger car at the same rate (just need to think of a name for this one now). ...