Blenheim

On Thursday, we left Christchurch without really doing anything there and headed to Blenheim. We drove along the East Coast. It was really cool because the scenery was so different compared to what we had seen the past few days. We could still just barely see the mountains of Arthur's Pass in the background, so it was sad to say goodbye to them. The drive was still really pretty because there was a lot of green and we were back to green hills like in the North Island. We drove through the city of Kaikora which was cool. We were right up along the coast and the shore was pretty rocky which was neat. I even saw some seals just chillen around in the rocks! It's always more fun seeing things like that when you know you could have missed it.

Luckily once we were in this area we were able to see some mountains again. Kaikora is well known for their whale and dolphin tours. We didn't have the time to take a tour, plus I'm sure it would have been expensive, so we didn't do it. It would have been really cool though to see a whale because the only time I've ever seen one is on TV or one time at Seaworld. We turned off onto a lookout, though and the view was incredible!

There were mountains in the background, green grass, and beautiful blue water. It wasn't a huge town, but it sure was beautiful.  It was really interesting being on the coast of the ocean and then seeing mountains in the background. It just seems like two things that I wouldn't think could be so close together. Maybe because the water was so clear and the grass was so green and it was pretty warm out, so it didn't seem like we should be seeing snow anywhere.

After taking the slight detour it was finally time to enter Wine Country. Blenheim and surrounding areas are well known for their white wines whereas the red wines are more common down south by Queenstown and where we bungee jumped. Since Courtney and I like white wine more and Shaina just likes all white wine, we decided to do our tour here. It is such a pretty view driving through vineyards on all sides of you. They take up so much room and it is crazy to think how much land these vineyards take up. We wanted to find our hostel first to see if he had any suggestions for where to go, so we headed to our hostel called Grapevine Backpackers (clever I know).

Since it was about 1:30 when we got there, we knew we wouldn't have time to go to many of the vineyards. He showed us a map and there were just TONS you could choose from all over the place. We were really hungry, so we asked him which one had restaurants attached. We ended up going to a winery called Wither Hills. We felt super classy being there since it seemed like a really nice place.

When we got there, it as once again a beautiful day so we wanted to sit outside. Our host told us that they had just filled the last table outside with people which bummed us out. However, then she said we could sit and have some food and wine on bean bags right in the sun. How can you turn that down?! This made us feel even classier.

Once we ordered, they let us go do a free tasting while we waited for our food. We then picked out a bottle that we all liked to share. I got a vegetarian cheesecake to eat. It sounds weird I know, but it was basically a mixture of vegetables with a few different cheeses and a crust (maybe some of you could have worked that one out on your own). It was so good and went perfectly with our beverage. I would definitely go back to that place! They gave us a center bean bag with a wooden board to set our food on so that's what we got to eat on. It was such a fun and different experience. 

Because we know that wine and cheese go well together, we went to another winery called Geisens for a tasting and then bought a cheese and vintage platter. We got some sea food, some bread, some dips, and plenty of cheese. We definitely didn't need it after our lunch, but it only seemed appropriate. This one had a different feel to it than the other one. It felt more like Italy or something. I like the first place better, but this one still had a neat environment as well.

We headed back to our hostel to figure out what to do in the town of Blenheim. We eventually decided to just go out for an appetizer (way after eating everything for lunch) at a place suggested by the guy working at our hostel. It was cool because we ended up meeting two more Americans! They were a bit older than we were, but we were like the only people at this place so we just joined tables and hung out. They were originally from Chicago and are brothers. Now one lives in Washington D.C. and the other lives in Japan. It's always fun hearing people's stories as to why they are in New Zealand. These guys were just traveling, but it is still fun to hear. Once it got pretty late we decided to go back to our hostel to crash. 

The next day we were headed on the ferry in Picton back to the North Island. We couldn't believe we were already leaving the South Island, but we still had a couple days of our trip left so we were ready to make the most of it!