A little piece of heaven that is South Island, NZ - Day 1

South Island NZ Day 1 - Marlborough - Nelson - Monaco - Mapua



First views of the Southern Alps



 Day 0 - The trip didn't have the perfect start (understatement) with me still wrapping up work till 15 minutes before departing and then running into pre-Easter weekend traffic. We made the flight just in time and flew into Christchurch past mid-night. Fortunately the kind hotel owners had left the keys in a location for us to retrieve. Slept after 2am knowing we had to set out by 7am.

Day 1 - we did get out by 7:30am  in to what turned out to be the most beautiful day  this time of the year in NZ, with The Fall (Autumn) colours in full bloom and the sun shining bright and 18-20degree C (~68 F) temperatures.

Hows that for outdoors dining?

Canterbury reminded us why we were here and on yet another Highway 1, the pacific ocean put on a great show giving dozens of surfers on the way, more than their fair share of  great surf - all with the snow peaked Alps in the background that had received some fresh powder a week ago.



Nins Bins - crayfish for the surfer's appetite!



Our first stop was Kaikoura, a town named after the crayfish that is its speciality. Taking Lonely Planet's advice, we stopped at a caravan, a lonely enterprise on the highway and beach north of the town, serving great seafood and crayfish to the local surfers and cars that know where to stop for the best (called Nins Bins). Whatever maybe the chances of this happening, but as we stand there taking pictures, we noticed 2 penguins on the rocky beach just hanging out!!

A very 'different' single-lane Highway 1 experience with little traffic,  no tailgating convertibles and the ability to pull over anywhere and wherever to smell the ocean... or make another quick stop at a 'must see' cafe housed in a seaside spanish villa (see photos).



Lunch at Allan Scott



New Zealand Green Lip Mussels after I was done with them



The Marlborough region is New Zealand's wine country and boasts of some very popular labels, fantastic whites (Savignon Blanc, Chardonnay amd Rieslings) and Pinot Noirs including Cloudy Bay. This was our next stop and we stopped at a couple wineries, one of them (Allan Scott) famous also for a great restaurant - had excellent green-lip mussels (see photos!) and picked up a 'few' bottles of wine for the trip ahead :).

The Grand Mercure in Monaco on Rose Bay

We checked into our hotel in Monaco, a newly built township of victorian-replica cottages in Monaco near Nelson on Rose bay and were upgraded to a suite (this, as it turned out, was the first of many more upgrades over the trip). We walked the shores of nearby villages Mapua and Ruby Bay before calling it a night.








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