NZ D4: Blenheim, Kaikoura and Hanmer Spring

Highlight of the day:
1. Set foot on South Island of New Zealand
2. Getting drunk at Cloudy Bay Vineyard
3. Satisfying Crayfish meal at Kaikoura
4. Decent stay at Harrogate Gardens Motel

At 8.15am, we took the Interislander Ferry from Wellington to Picton. It was the earliest ferry from North island to South island and the whole journey would take more than 3 hours.

Temperature on that morning was too low for us to stay on the deck.

So we decided to stay indoor and take a nap, considered that we had to wake up very early to catch the ferry that morning.

Three hours plus later, we reached Picton. We had two missions on that day. The first one was wine tasting at Cloudy Bay Vineyard at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand, in the Wairau Valley of the Marlborough appellation. The second one was to have fresh and huge crayfish at Kaikoura. On the way to Blenheim, we decided to have some cheese and cracker in the car.

Cloudy Bay Vineyard

Blenheim is a wonderfully sunny place to grow grapes

the surroundings

a nice wall in the compound

There were 12 type of wines for free tasting.

I was waiting to be served.

Even though Cloudy Bay serves world class wine, but they are very generous when it comes to customer tasting. One glass after another, my face started to turn red and I knew I have to stop. But of course, we did not forget to bring back one bottle as it was too good to resist.

Coming out from Cloudy Bay, we drove towards South and looked out for Nins Bin sign.

Nins Bin van

Simple menu

Crayfish with price on tail @ NZ$80 per kg. We picked the biggest in the box which was almost a kg.

cutting into half

Crayfish with garlic butter

big piece of meat

Creamy roe

One dozen of mussels

Crayfish is a must eat in Kaikoura.

After the hearty meal, we drove to Harrogate Gardens Motel and had some good rest.


Cloudy Bar Vineyard
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Nins Bin
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