Fizz 2 Flippers

The interisland ferry dropped us in Picton, on the South Island around midday.  Lots of time to start exploring!  So off to Marlborough we went - the largest wine region in New Zealand.  It was a glorious day and immediately leaving Picton we were travelling through wide open valleys of farmland - mostly cattle and sheep - which gently gave way to large tracts of vines as we neared Blenheim. 

We were aiming for Renwick, just west of Blenheim as through Duncan's YPO network we had an invitation to Nautilus, a large vineyard and winery, primarily known for their pinot noir and sparkling wine.  Although just slightly conscious that we were arriving in a rather large motorhome, we were greeted warmly and swiftly joined by not just one, but two of the principal winemakers, Clive and Brett.  (What actually happened, was Brett saw that Clive was about to take 2 punters wine tasting and as it was his birthday, decided that joining in would be a perfect way to spend the remainder of the afternoon.)  In all honesty, it turned out to be the most interesting wine tour I've ever been on.  Clive took us through the Sauvignon steel tanks, then onto some Chardonnay oak barrels (of different ages and coopers, same vintage) and then the same for Pinot Noir. It was fascinating to see how the same grapes, picked in the same year, could taste so different, depending on the time in barrel, barrel origin and whether whole bunch or grapes only.  We finished up with sparkling white and rose in their tasting room, for which Nautilus have won many awards and frankly rivals good champagne. If you see it, buy it!

"Guess the grape" tasting at Hans Herzog

As we still had plenty of room in our drinking boots, we drove 5 minutes up the valley to a very different kind of vineyard. 30 odd years ago, a Swiss winemaker wanted to find somewhere in the world to create a new vineyard.  He looked worldwide, and finally found Marlborough - the aspect, climate and soils were perfect - and he set up Hans Herzog vineyards. Growing 29 grapes variety on 11.5 hectares, everything about this vineyard is organic and in step with nature and its surrounds.  Stunningly beautiful, with a top restaurant and accommodation it reminded me of the South African vineyards - oh for a night here, rather than the motorhome cabin!  Instead we made do with a tour, tasting and dinner. Not too shabby.

It was late by now, so we zipped into nearby Renwick where we'd spied an overnight carpark at the local rugby grounds.  But on arrival, all spots were taken, and with a $200 fine if you're not in a designated spot, we had to go looking elsewhere for somewhere to spend the night.  My handy CampingNZ app led us to a DOC site 20 minutes away, Onamalutu, a huge field in the middle of remnant podocarp forest.  We arrived after dark, the first there, feeling slightly spooked. But we woke to birds singing, rabbits in the long grass and a couple of other cars/campervans.  It was gorgeous - just a small notch up on the rugby club carpark!

Marahau beach beauties

We set off early for a longish drive west to Abel Tasman National Park.  Paul and Bindy had convinced us we'd be mad to miss it, and reinforced the idea with an offer of a sweet parking spot at Marahau, a popular beach town just outside the park.  We stopped off on the way in Motueka to book a park campsite and sea kayaks - with a plan to paddle from Marahau up the coastline, camp overnight and paddle back the next day. Arriving in Marahau early afternoon, we instantly fell in love with it.  A tiny beach town, a couple of cool cafes, the legendary Fat Tui (a burger bar in an old van) loads of kayaking outfits and a spectacular beach.  And we had a beautiful day to boot.  Walking on the sands at evening low tide, it was teeming with life - so much more than I've ever seen anywhere else in the world.  Maybe Europe would have boasted this much wildlife and sealife 100 or 200 years ago, but not any more.  NZ stil has it, and it's fascinating.  Starfish, crabs, sea anenomies, mussels of all sizes - all jewels sparkling in the sand.

Lunch spot

Next morning Independent Sea Kayaks gave us a lesson in sea kayaking: how to launch and manoeuvre our 2 man kayak, and what to do if we capsize.  We loaded all our gear, packed into drybags, into the kayak and donned our rubberized skirts and lifejackets, sealed ourselves into our vessel and launched.  A little nerve wracking at first, as the waves came at us (not a white horse in sight, but they still seems to rock the kayak quite a bit) but with 3 days on the Whanganui in our pockets, we were quietly confident.  We headed out across the bay, me steering, Duncan in the engine room, and checking the map.  Abel Tasman offers a beautiful rocky coastline littered with bays, beaches and small islands, most of which you can only access from the sea.  And as a national park, it is pristine and a perfect habitat for all sorts of marine life.  We splashed our way over to a nearby island and immediately found ourselves about 20m from a group of seals, lying on the rocks to warm up, or swimming in the shallows, twisting and turning, flippers, heads and tailfins popping out of the waves alternately.  We would have stayed but we had a 4 hour kayak ahead of us so had to press onward, past the inviting beaches.  In fact, to speed our journey, we chose to kayak across many of the bays into a headwind which didn't help.  The Mad Mile, aptly named, seemed pretty choppy to us, and it was hours before we decided to land on a small bay for a quick lunch, trying very hard to

Looking after her eggs

convince the variable oystercatcher nesting on the beach that we came in peace.  I think if we hadn't kept our distance the male would have physically attacked us!  It was only as we pulled out the lunch drybag, that I realised that I hadn't exactly packed an enormous amount of food for the trip.  Duncan kept looking in the bag for goodies, only to mournfully turn to me and ask me if there was any chocolate.  Uh-oh.  Turns out I can steer a kayak quite well, but I'm useless at picnics.

Back on the water, thinking we still had miles to go, and suddenly we were at Sandfly Creek, only

Mosquito bay

one bay from our camping grounds.  A quick paddle up and down the creek (joke in there somewhere?) and we arrived at our home for the night.  A gorgeous bay, fronted by a small island and backed by a river-fed lagoon, only accessible by boat, with space for about 6 tents.  Once we'd unpacked our boat, pitched our tent and explored the bay and river creek, all we had left was dinner, which, given my previous comments, you can imagine wasn't a long affair. We hit the sack before dark.  Actually another reason was that we had discovered that Mosquito Bay is a complete misnomer: we didn't see a single mosquito, but we did share it with hundreds of sand flies, intent on attacking us with a fury.  The tent was respite from the onslaught, but I must have been bitten 20 times that night, and viciously.  3 days later, the bites are still itching like hell...

Back seat driving

We slept 11 hours, counting the storm in the middle of the night.  Wind but no rain, so not too bad.  Back in the kayak, we took our time heading home, hugging the coastline back to Marahau.  Our one detour was kayaking completely around Adele Island.  Staying close to the rocky shore, we watched numerous seals: big males resting on the rocks and many others swimming, some coming within a few meters of the kayak as they twisted and turned in the clear azure water.  Paddling quietly into an inlet we made friends with dozens of pied shags, fisherman birds diving in and swimming underwater after fish almost as fast as they could fly.  It was incredible being so close to these animals without them caring at all; I honestly don't know anywhere else in the world where you could experience it.






Back in Marahau, arms and backs very glad to be released from the kayak, we treated ourselves to a couple of Fat Tui burgers washed down with a lovely bottle of Nautilus fizz.  A fitting end to 3 beautiful days.

The Fat Tui burger van :)