Wine & Kayaks in Marlborough
We had an easy two hour drive to Blenheim from Kaikoura, in fact it must have been our shortest so far! We restocked the (tiny) fridge and cupboards at a supermarket before finding ourselves a quiet spot to freedom camp in the nearby village of Renwick.
A day of cycling around the vineyards of Blenheim and sampling some wines had always been on our must-do list for New Zealand. We managed to squeeze in 6 wineries and somehow the same number of bottles in to my little rucksack. There are so many wineries that one is spoilt for choice but we sampled a good cross-section based on recommendations by friends and people we had met on our travels. The Marlborough Region is renowned worldwide for it's Sauvignon Blanc (a personal favourite of ours) but we were surprised with the range and quality of other varieties. For our British friends and family you will be pleased to know that virtually all the wines we sampled are available in the UK (the UK being the biggest export market for most wineries) and it's typically cheaper in Tesco than at the cellar door!
We had an early start for the drive to the Marlborough Sounds to get our kayak. We took a bit of a gamble by opting to go unguided, but the gamble paid off as we encountered more fantastic wildlife than the guided kayaks. No more than 10 minutes from leaving the shore we spotted our first New Zealand fur seals. They were lazing on someone's jetty but as we neared one jumped in the water and came over for a nosey. Much smaller than the Sea Lions we saw in the Galapagos but just as fast and graceful in the water.
After crossing to the other side of Queen Charlotte Sound we took a break on the shore and had some snacks. The sounds look just like many of the lakes we have seen in New Zealand so it was easy to forget the water was tidal. We were lucky that we spotted the Kayak starting to drift away as the tide was coming in! A close call!
Whilst I paddled Nilgun was on wildlife spotting and photography duties. She spotted two small blue penguins but they were too quick for us to give chase. Shortly after she spotted an octopus moving below our kayak. Although I had seen one in the Galapagos I had never seen one swimming, quite a thrill! It was still reasonably early in the morning but the sound was alive with the strange noises of many birds, it's hard to describe the noise as we had never heard anything like it, but it did become a bit irritating after a while!
A short paddle and we found another fur seal. This chap was even more friendly than the first and he swam alongside us and allowed us to follow for quite some time. We took a bunch of snaps and even a video of him swimming.
After completing our day of kayaking we found out that we had been very lucky with the weather. The water was flat with very little wind, but the New Zealand authorities had issued a severe weather warning for a storm that was due to hit that evening. We managed to switch our booking on the inter-island ferry and caught the last crossing to Wellington.
