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Well we mountain biked part of the Queen Charlotte Track as planned - 25km through beautiful shady forests with occasional views of the Sound. A really nice day but Vod shouted a bit at Stewart after 12,5km - something about it being "too much/too diffcult" but we got back ok, both completely exhausted. Slept very well that night.
Next day we tasted the world famous New Zealand Green Shell mussels at the place where they come from - Havelock. As well as being strikingly green they are HUGE - about 4X the size of european mussels. Then camped overnight in a field in front of a mountain(look at the picture & you'll see what we mean) & caught up on washing clothes etc.
Then on to the world famous Marlborough Wine area - very interesting, including of course a detailed cellar visit with the Nautilus Wines winemaker as personal guide - a service reserved for members of the "profession", not tourists, which lasted nearly 2 hours. Stewart is looking forwards to sharing his findings with Pierre, the Monthernots & the Sanlavilles + other friends in the Beaujolais. He also now knows how they get the strong hint of gooseberries in the Sauvignon Blanc.
Next stop Kaikoura stopping on the way for Vod to (literally) get in close & personal amongst a seal colony - the photos were not zoomed from afar.
Kaikoura is world famous for whale watching and this was one of the big highlights of the trip that Vod was looking forwards to. The weather was relatively clear but the Pacific had quite a swell & the whales had inconsiderately decided to spend their thursday about1 ½ hours away from Kaikoura. The other problem is that they only stay on the surface to top up their oxygen levels for about 15mins then they dive to feed for as much as an hour or more so you've got a very small window of opportunity to catch them even with modern technology. Then there was the Pacific swell……………..we are both relatively ok with sea travel - not so a group of Germans; We reckon you'll find one of the Germans in the next edition of the Guiness Book of Records (if they have records for sea sickness !) Then there was the Vomit family, a couple & their two kids. The kids were ok but Mum & Dad unfortunately seemed to vomit all the way to the whale site, were too ill to go outside to see the whales, then seemed to spend all the time on the way back in a coma. Well we were lucky, we got a brief but very clear glance of 3 sperm whales - not easy to photograph though. A lot of the whale is submerged & you've nothing to give you the scale of it in the vastness of the ocean.
Vod now booked to go swimming with dolphins Friday morning - Stewart doesn't fancy 1) jumping in ice cold water to frolick with friendly sea mammals or 2) another boat journey like todays - so will be catching up on guitar practice.
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