After leaving Nelson and making our way to the ferry via Blenheim, we always recall the spots Graeme recommends for us to visit or eat or sit. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you want to look at it, we rolled into Blenheim hungry, hard to imagine, but true. Again, fortunately, we frequently reflect, albeit it was already an entire month ago, that we completed the AlpineEpic mountain bike stage race, burning close to 18,000 calories in a few days' time. Thank GOD (my pants still fit). Blenheim is located in the northeast part of the south island, also known as Marlborough country, also known for its famous (and delicious) wines. Something else to note here in New Zealand they have figured something (else) out quite well- Most of their wineries have restaurants or cafes, enabling one to wine pair instead of just wine taste, or grab a snack, or in our case have a perfect picnic in the middle of the afternoon. This meal at Wairu River Winery was one of our favorites- it was fresh, simple, seasonal, without being too filling. Zeph ordered a Sticky Pork Salad that had some Asian influence and I ordered a Corn Fritter Salad that was topped with one of the best tomato sauces I had ever had and, yes, more of New Zealand's very best (crisp) bacon. If that wasn't enough we had a coconut pavlova with passionate fruit/lemon curd with fresh berries...it was a wonderful (and surprisingly light) meal.
An amazing sticky pork thai salad..
And the pavlova before it "blew" away...not really...we ate it all and it was brilliantly light...
California poppies are still California poppies, even in New Zealand!
After a night in Blenheim we headed to Picton and boarded the ferry for the north island to head toward our last destination (of the trip) in Rotorua. We are excited to get to visit Graeme in Wellington again and probably eat some more amazing meals.
There was a brief deluge while boarding the ferry in Picton
The size of the ferry is still quite impressive to us...
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