We are back on our slow travels and we are starting at the top of the South Island in Marlborough. Home of Sauvignon, Sounds & Salt. As we drive up from Kaikoura, we pass Lake Grassmere. You can see it from the road quite distinctly as the fields & hills you are driving past change from green/brown to the pink of the lake. As you divert off the road, the pink changes to white, a little further around and you see mountain of white. This is all salt. Naturally produced by the prevailing weather patterns here. A large percentage of New Zealand’s salt comes from here. It was quite fascinating! Also a quick stop in Seddon – it’s a place that seems to endure more than its fair share of earthquakes.

We stop overnight at a PoP that is situated on the edge of a vineyard. We enjoy happy hour with the hosts and Don has some company while he is cooking dinner!

Before we head further up towards the Sounds, we stop in at Hunter’s Winery and buy a bottle of their Bubbles…https://hunters.co.nz/ We stop for coffee in Picton. It is a really pretty town. We have great flat whites at Gusto…https://www.gustocafe.co.nz/ before getting back on the VERY windy road that takes us around Queen Charlotte Sound.

We stop for lunch in Havelock. This is the home of the green shell mussel. Our venue for lunch is Mills Bay Mussels…https://millsbaymussels.co.nz/ where we have classic steamed mussels. They were OMG good! Fat, juicy and full of flavour. If you are ever in Havelock you must go and try some. We stayed overnight here at the Havelock Hotel – and celebrated Valentine’s Day in our campervan with Hunter’s Bubbles and homemade guacamole in our van in the hotel car park!

We are staying in a DoC campsite in the Pelorus Scenic Reserve at Pelorus Bridge. It is stunning here. It is a reserve that is situated next to the Pelorus River & there are a number of walks that you can do. We decided to try three – Tawa, Totora & the Circle Loop. The Circle Loop includes crossing over a swing bridge, which whilst looking solid, really does swing as you cross it. All in near 30 degree heat! Well, what is there to do after said walk…cool of in the river of course! Don is of course like a billy goat clambering over the rocks and is the first in to the water after leaping of into the warm waters of the river. I of course, tiptoe gently in all lady like. I do have a ‘first’ a bit later though. After some encouragement from Don, I take a leap of faith and leap of the rocks myself! First time ever. As they say…you’re never too old!