Helen and Randall on the road

Blenheim, for such a small town, has an incredible Aquatic Centre so I got to go swimming and then we had coffee and cake:

Mmm…carrot cake and a bowl of mocha…

We also managed to swap our damaged self-inflating mat and buy loads of other goodies at the local Kathmandu.

Sadly we had to work for the whole of the next day for our French clients…at one point we heard a REALLY annoying mobile phone ring, and we both looked around for some time to try and find it before looking out of the window and realising it was the ice cream van! I had to run after it to acquire this rather splendid Mr Whippy for Randall:

Luckily we still had time the next day for a winery tour as Blenheim is in the Marlborough Wine Region:

Hunters Wines

Allan Scotts and Framingham

Bladen, and Wairau River (where we ate lunch); Randall with the lovely Colleen, our guide and driver.

Colleen told us about two Welsh guys, Selwyn and Roy, who had come to NZ for the Rugby World Cup, and had printed out song books especially, so they could lead everyone into song wherever they were…I think they became minor celebrities over the course of the RWC, so here is Randall with Colleen’s copy of ‘The Selroy Songbook’ with its selection of rousing songs in Welsh, English, Italian, French etc including most National Anthems and The Haka. Fantastic.

After a nap we headed to Picton for the ferry crossing to Wellington (slightly rougher than on the way over) and a somewhat rubbish night in the Wellington Waterfront Motorhome Park.