Happy and tired after a great day and a long walk in the Abel Tasman, we arrived in Nelson, a fairly big town in the North of the South Island. We just stayed there for the night since nothing struck our interest and as usual we were on a tight schedule. We’re sure there’s plenty to see in Nelson, but we’ll have to see it another time ;-). After a quiet night in one of the city’s campgrounds we headed to the wine region of New Zealand: Marlborough.

An important thing for anyone who has already had at least one glass of wine in his life: you cannot leave Marlborough without doing a wine tasting! So we decided to book one of the many Tours: a half day wine tasting was our choice for the next day (for that day the tours had already started) in and around Blenheim. Alright, we were left with a free unplanned day, so we drove up the Marlborough Sounds along about a thousand of the many curves along Kenepuru rd. leading to beautiful deserted bays, which reminded us a little bit in vegetation and colors to some lakes in Ticino or northern Italy, with the important difference that they were virtually uninhabited and that in fact, even if you can’t recognize it from the distance, it’s saltwater. A lot of small beaches and Hills, like Fjords… We returned in the evening to find a nice spot for camping with our selfcontained car, and it was free, had a toilet and a beautiful sunset. These are the kind of things why we absolutely love having our campervan….

The weather couldn’t have been better the next day (yes, we think we deserved it after the first two weeks in southern NZ :-D), blue sky and about 30 degrees…perfect for a day out in the vineyards. In an interesting and luckily very pleasant group of 10 we visited different vineyards and were able to tase 5 to 6 wines at each estate, from bubbly to whites or rosé and reds. Some really good wines, some we didn’t like that much. All in all it was a very successful afternoon??!