Marlbourough and the Hot Springs

The drive down from Nelson through Marlbourough is a long line of wine country. We spent the first bit in Blenheim. The city itself is nothing much to look at but the surrounding area is full of great wine, an area most known for its Sav. Blanc. Either way they all had huge ranges all open for tasting for frizzle! Grove Mill and Highfield estates both had art galleries in their tasting areas and were part of water conservation projects; grove mill through their protected marshlands on property and Highfield with their special lable fundraiser. We spent luch walking through the area at grove mill looking for the frogs their logo was designed after but had no luck. My favorite of the day, and the only good reds along with great guwutztraminer and Riesling, not to mention another great gallery space and beautiful views. We also got much better at the whole tasting thing sharing glasses and pouring out the stuff we knew right away wasn't worth buying. Turns out you can taste a lot more that way, go figure.
From their we went to Kaikoura for whale watching and kayaking but the weather turned south so we tried our luck west into the mountains up in Hanmer Springs, said to be some of the best springs in NZ or at least most fancy. It was nice after a couple days of hiking and awkward sleeping arrangements.
of course the next day, when we were planning on some great hikes in the area the weather got nasty again so naturally we headed to Waipara for more wine. His was supposed to be some of the best wine in the country, and they were nice, but our love of red kept us thinking Wairarapa was better. Still they had some great whites and huge selections, the largest being Mud House where they had at least 4 different tastings for each category from sav. blanc to Merlot, ridiculous.
At the end of all the tasting, en route to Christchurch we found a reserve near a river to car camp at. We finally re-organized the car and found we had 13 bottle of wine we'd bought on these excusions and thats just what we hadn't drank since, so we decided it was time for a break from our expensive little habbit until we can at least drink some of it and create more storage...