Richmond > Blenheim (The dreaded)
A beautiful sunny day, with one of our smoothest, unstressful campsite departures. Catherine drove first, along windy street (that's both blowy and not straight) to get us to the gateway to the Marlborough sounds. The scenery was fantastic, and more European looking again, the sun was shining and it was a good start to the day. We stopped after about an hours drive at Havelock, which is one of the Gateways to the Sounds. The town was quaint, the harbour was beautiful and one of the few places we've seen where there were some great 'lifestyle' houses (as the kiwis call them).
After a wander through the town and along the harbour we had lunch at the Mussells Boys. Havelock is also known as the Green-lipped mussel capital of the world so Catherine had a large bowl of steamed mussells (fantastic) Gavin had Blue Cod and James had sausages (again). Mellowed by a glass of Sauvignon Blanc each (the kiwi standard) we drove the 30km to Renwick, the start of Marlborough Wine country.
 
We decided to visit a few vineyards and started at Highfield Estate. This had a beautiful Tuscan tower overlooking the whole valley and gave us a great view of all the vineyards. We tasted some wine, bought a few bottles to tide us over for the rest of our trip and continued up the valley. We then drove to Mudhouse which also had Schnapps to taste (by this time CMcD was very glad she'd driven the first leg and could take full advantage) then finished off at Cloudy Bay.
 
Bleinham was a short drive away and didn't look any better the second time around!. We set up camp, had a rest then walked in to town to do some more eating and drinking. CMcD thinks this is definitely more her style of holiday although the previous few weeks of exercise and deprivation (?!) made us appreciate the experience more.
After several aborted attempts to find a restaurant (having set off confident because Blenham is supposed to be the food & wine capital of the South Island!) we found a great restaurant with fantastic service who took great care of James which allowed us to eat a starter, main and dessert without having to make a hasty departure. The food was delicious and James had sausages again.
9:28:31 PM 
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