After leaving Kaikoura we drove north along the absolutely stunning Highway 1 right on the edge of the ocean. This drive was spectacular! Nothing like it that I have seen. Slightly reminiscent of highway 1 along the California coast, except minus other the millions of people close by and the rampant development. This segment of New Zealand is particularly sparse, with only the occasional sheep farm nestled in the mountains along the coast. One treat was stopping at a little shack (truly a shack) along a lonely stretch of road where we bought fresh from the ocean green lipped NZ mussels which we gladly ate for dinner that night.
Left: stunning NZ coast, right: fresh NZ mussels!
After leaving behind the coast and veering inland, we stopped at the Yealands Estate. It was a pretty amazing vineyard which has been pursuing an ethic of sustainable wine for longer than than that term has been a marketing ploy. Super friendly staff which gave us good recommendations on stuff to do for the next few days (as well as tastes of their nice wine). We then hit the road for our overnight destination in the town of Blenheim at the heart of Marlborough wine country.
We had a wonderful meal of fresh mussels and bottles of wine. We ate in the common area of the park and met some really nice people. Probably the most interesting couple we met was an young English couple which had spent the last 500 days biking from England overland through Europe and Russia, down into Southeast Asia ending up in Singapore before flying to NZ to continue their ride - a total of 30,000 kms! All this was in the effort to promote rugby in far flung places. (Check out their website, it is pretty amazing). They were super nice and tried to give us their extra tickets to the upcoming US versus Ireland match (which we couldn't attend).
That night Dad and I went over the road to the local pub to watch the Italy versus Russia game. As usual we had fun and met people from all over the world including a nice guy from Glasgow Scotland. He had an incredibly thick brogue that coupled with a stutter made him virtually unintelligible! However, we all spoke rugby so it worked out pretty well.
We had a wonderful meal of fresh mussels and bottles of wine. We ate in the common area of the park and met some really nice people. Probably the most interesting couple we met was an young English couple which had spent the last 500 days biking from England overland through Europe and Russia, down into Southeast Asia ending up in Singapore before flying to NZ to continue their ride - a total of 30,000 kms! All this was in the effort to promote rugby in far flung places. (Check out their website, it is pretty amazing). They were super nice and tried to give us their extra tickets to the upcoming US versus Ireland match (which we couldn't attend).
That night Dad and I went over the road to the local pub to watch the Italy versus Russia game. As usual we had fun and met people from all over the world including a nice guy from Glasgow Scotland. He had an incredibly thick brogue that coupled with a stutter made him virtually unintelligible! However, we all spoke rugby so it worked out pretty well.
Left: vineyards, right: Lunch at the vineyard!
The next morning we had a nice breakfast and headed off to take in some vineyards. Our favorite was the Domaine Georges Michel - which had delicious french style wine and an attached bistro where we had a delicious meal before we headed off to the next destination of our trip - Nelson Lake and Murchison.
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