Weekend away in Marlborough sounds

On Friday after our work for the day, myself, Mark and Louise got dropped off at the Wellington Ferry to take us across to Picton. The ferry took 3 hours, with the last hour going through the Marlborough sounds. A very beautiful sight with all the lovely bays and lovely green hills. Its amazing how long the sky stays light.




We got picked up by our lodger,the bayview backpackers. The place we stayed was 5 minutes outside of Picton village. The town only has 4 000 inhabitants, so really tiny. The people that run the backpackers, Sue and Graham, where really super helpful and very friendly.


The Saturday morning we got picked up at 8.30 to go first on a morning kayak to a place called Anakuti. Here we would start walking part of the 4 day Queen Charlotte track. We would walk about 12 km's, (4 Hrs) to a bay called Mistletoe. Here we caught the water taxi back to Picton. The kayaking was very easy going along the coast line, paddling through lovely clear waters, looking for stingrays. The water was also a very nice temp. The weather was overcast which was actually a blessing in disguise otherwise we would be roasted by the sun.













The walk along the coast was along the coast line and at some places some beautiful views. We mainly walked through rain forests. Later in the afternoon it did start to drizzle again, which was a pity.

Once back at the backpackers we went out for a lovely meal at the spinaker at the Marine. One our way back home we saw the comet, McNought. It was an amazing big like flaming star. We first thought it was a aeroplane.

On sunday we walked into the village Picton and had a lovely breakfast at the dog and frog resturant. Its amazing here, at all the places you always need to go to the counter and order and pay and then wait for your food. Sometimes it really takes very long. Sunday afternoon we took a nice wine tour in the Blenheim region which is only a 30 minute drive away from Picton. The english knew quite a couple and the region is more known for is sav blanc white wines than for red wines. We went to 4 different ones, the most famous one being Montana. Montana was also the biggest wine producing farm. After the wine tasting we stopped off at the chocolate factory. WOW this was great. There are only 2 chocolate factories that make these unique chocolates. You are allowed to taste some of the chocolates. I bought a couple it was so good. You can only buy these chocolates from the factory or from the internet booking and they will ship everywhere. that is good.





On monday morning we took the mountain bikes and went along the coast line to look for the mauri sites. It was not too much to look at but the stories were pretty interesting. Apparently in the south island there are not many mauri sitings. Then it was back to Wellington again on the ferry.

Now back at the house again safe and sound.