We arrived at Picton via a wine tour of the Marlborough region, where we took in the delights of several wineries including Te Whare Ra and Auntsfield. The former being a boutique winery run by a husband and wife team. We met said husband who to took us through all their very lovely wines, so lovely in fact Andrew found a white wine that he liked (Reisling D) and Pinot Noir that we both loved, and hence we bought a bottle of each. At Auntsfield Andrew found a C**...

We saw whales!!! Three sperm whales in fact. Kaikoura is famed as a whale-watching location as they come very close to land so we just need to get on a jet boat for about 10 minutes to get to the area where we might spot them, above an underwater canyon. Apparently, spotting one is good, two is lucky and three is great. Seeing them is a great experience - we pulled alongside the majestic beasts (one at a time), and stayed there watching it blow air and swim along...

Christchurch is often said to be like a small English town... but it's a very odd one. Some parts of it are like Oxford or Cambridge (you can even go punting down the River Avon) but neither Oxford or Cambridge would have allowed the planning disasters that have occurred in this town. Certain streets are very pretty, but turn 90 degrees and it's totally ugly. There are some decent restaurants, but it doesn't seem to have much of a heart, it's just some streets th...

So... We didn't really intend to come to Napier yet, but we got to Taupo (our intended destination) and the weather was so rubbish that we decided it wasn't the right time to be staying in a resort which is all about the views so carried on down the road to beautiful Napier. (We should note that we went to the Craters of the Moon park between rotorua and taupo, another thermal park which was worth the $6 but not really the place to be in the rain). Napier is fa...