Peace and quiet and swimming with dolphins.....

I'm a bit behind with the blog - so much to see....so little time!  So, here's what we did from 23rd Jan 2012 - 29th Jan 2012.

Marlborough Sound

On the way we stopped at Havelock – last civilisation before we drove into the Marlborough Sound region with Lakes, hills and nothing else.  We stopped at “The Mussel Pot” and shared a platter of cooked mussels, smoked mussels, grilled mussels and mussel chowder!

Havelock from the road to Marlborough Sound

We stayed for two nights at Nicau Cove with only a few fellow campers and vanners for company…..oh, and two wekas and some oyster catchers. 

What a spot!

A Weka

A Tui

One of the families camping there did a lot of fishing and showed Malc how to get cockles at low tide so that was tea sorted!  Malc did it all on his own the next night but several of them were empty shells so we had them as a starter luckily and not the main event!

As we had hired bikes with the van we decided to get out along the coast.  It was very hilly and hot but we managed about 20K with a lot of stops.

Nice place to stop...someone even painted the chairs!

Blenheim wine trail and Picton

We found a nice spot at Sprink Creek near Blenheim which was at one end of a 12k road with many wineries at the other end……good planning eh?  Unfortunately, it took longer to cycle than we thought and there was a head wind that day so we didn’t get to as many as we planned!  We still managed four wineries and a chocolate specialist and a very nice winery for lunch with a bottle of sparkling wine….it’s a wonder we made it back!

Cloudy bay vineyard

Giving the bikes a rest!

Lunch at Hunter's vineyard

Cycling through the vineyards

 Picton was very picturesque and it’s where the ferries go to the North Island into Wellington.

Apparently they don’t have ordinary Irish pubs here, oh no……..

Kaikoura

We spent two days at Kaikoura before getting the flight out of Christchurch to Auckland.  This is THE place to see dolphins, whales, seals and birdlife. 

We spent a few hours following dusky seals and Malc went swimming with the dolphins.  There were about 200 dusky dolphins and we also saw a few common dolphins and New Zealand Hector dolphins - which are the smallest dolphins and a rare species.