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Hi, here's an update letting you know what we managed to get up to (despite the rain for the majority of the time!) during our last week on NZ's South Island.
After arriving in Picton the night before, we used Wednesday as lazily as possible, taking our time to get up and then moving from Picton's YHA (which wasn't the nicest place we've ever stayed!) to 'The Villa', just around the corner. We were paying the same price, but the hostel was so much better, and we actually spent the whole day there. We had free tea and coffee if we wished, free toast and spreads for breakfast, free apple crumble with ice cream in the evening and the run of a load of different facilities. We watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (the DVD selection wasn't quite so good!) in the TV room that afternoon, and relaxed that evening in the lounge by the fire with a good old game of Scrabble!
The relaxation was to ensure we'd be fit and ready for the next two days, which we spent walking part of the Queen Charlotte Track, a three day walk (although we only did two days) in the Marlborough Sounds which covered 71 kilometres. We had to get transport over from Picton to Ship Cove, the starting point for the track, which took about an hour in a boat. This was the spot where Thomas Cook had first landed on the South Island, and we were able to peruse the information boards about Cook's efforts to cultivate the area as a stopover spot and their first encounters with the local Maori population. We also took in some great views out across Queen Charlotte Sound to various islands and peninsulas, all covered in dense, green foliage. Although it remained overcast all day, we were fortunate with the weather on Thursday. The funniest part of the day was definitely Jo's encounter with a weka, a large brown and flightless bird which are native to NZ and pretty inquisitive. We really wanted to get a picture of one, and they seemed tame enough, so Jo stuck out her hand to draw one nearer, pretending she had food. After trotting over, the weka suddenly arched its neck and came down hard in a sharp peck on Jo's hand! It managed to draw blood on her thumb! Later, we even found out they could kill rats, so she was lucky to avoid serious damage! We got picked up by our boat at 3, after four hours of walking, and taken the short distance over to Noeline's Homestay, where we would be spending the night. Noeline, 79 years old, was an absolute character. We were welcomed into her home with tea and scones and met her little, friendly dog, Tuppence. It really did feel like being at your grandma's house, as she sat in her favourite chair, lit the fire and regaled us with tales. She seemed to have travelled everywhere since her husband had died, and knew everything about every contestant and character on American Idol and Coronation Street! It truly was a surreal but brilliant experience, coming in the middle of hostel after hostel.
The next morning, however, the rains began. It didn't stop the whole day, and we got absolutely soaked within minutes of walking out of Noeline's door. What made it worse was that we were walking 23 kilometres! It actually turned out to be fairly funny, especially looking back on it, but we kept in high spirits throughout. As our clothes got wet, it wasn't long before we all felt really cold. The paths were also really slippy, and often had mini streams running down them, such was the torrent. Despite all this, or maybe because of it, we made really good time, and found ourselves at Black Rock camping shelter at 1:30, only five kilometres away from the end of our walk. We were really pleased to be there, as it was finally somewhere with a roof where we could stop for lunch. However, our boat back to Picton wasn't going to be picking us up until 4:30, so we spent a freezing hour and a half jogging on the spot and doing starjumps to keep warm whilst playing the 'celebrity game' (naming a famous person whose first name begins with the letter that's just been used as the first letter of the last famous person's surname)! By the time we set off again, our feet were so cold that it actually hurt to walk. Getting back to Picton that evening, we literally ran round to The Villa and their showers and scolded ourselves with hot water....it felt so good!
On Saturday we drove down the east coast to Kaikoura, which unfortunately proved to be a bit of a wash-out. We were hoping to get the opportunity to get on a whale sight-seeing cruise, but they were all cancelled owing to the choppy seas and driving rain. It was nice to sit inside in the YHA, however, and munch on beans on toast (or soup in Jo's case), with a cup of tea and the paper at lunchtime. Having to reorganise our plans, we headed back up the coast 30 kilometres to a waterfall spot recommended to us because of the large number of NZ fur seals. There was literally hundreds of pups, sheltering along the river far away from the shoreline's harsher elements. The waterfall would have been cool enough itself with torrents of water tumbling down (evidence of lots of rain), but we were able to get close to seals known to be usually shy, relaxing on rocks or jumping and playing in the waters, and share the experience with only about five other people. I managed to get cornered by one particularly inquisitve pup and had to clamber over the rocks to get away (apparently they have a strong playful bite), which Joe and Jo found hilarious and Jo managed tilm on the camera.
As the weather continued to be bad today in Kaikoura, we decided to drive back up to Picton in preparation for our ferry over to the North Island tomorrow morning. However, as we drove the two hour journey back, we passed through Blenheim and the Marlborough Wine District, and the weather here improved markedly. The sun was out, blue skies abounded, and we thought, why not spend the rest of the day here? Back in Picton, we therefore booked on to a Marlborough Wine region tour, which turned out to be really good fun. We tasted 19 different wines at three different wineries and also visited a liquer shop and a chocolate factory. There were really good sauvignon blancs, chenin blancs and rieslings, and the odd red and dessert wine too. We found it pretty funny that we were there, sniffing and swirling, when we didn't have a clue about wines, and the other five people on the tour clearly did! The best part of the afternoon, however, was that the sun continued to shine, after too many days of grey or rain. It made for some beautiful scenery, with row after row of vines alongside every road, overshadowed by mountains in the distance. The day was capped off when we jumped in the free jacuzzi back at The Villa in Picton.
Tomorrow, we get up bright and early and get on the ferry over to Wellington, and NZ's North Island. We'll give you another update about that and the next few days after as soon as we can!
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