MY TRIP by The Curmudgeon

 We got back last night from a few days away, down south.

We went to Picton on the ferry Kaitaki and picked up a rental car for the drive to Kaikoura.

Unfortunately it was raining all the way down, overnight and the next day so we didn't get a chance for a walk around the bay and the hills. The 'boutique' hotel turned out to be a bit of a disappointment - rather ordinary and overpriced. It was way jazzed up on the internet site. We did see a lot of road and infrastructure rebuilding though which was impressive, We have some pretty good engineers in this country.

Marlborough was an improvement and we spent two nights in a vineyards B&B. It was much better value than the Kaikoura boutique hotel being roomy and nicely fitted out - a townhouse really.

On Thursday afternoon we spent a couple of hours at the Omaka air museum which has two exhibitions - WW1 with Peter Jackson's collection of planes with WETA workshop exhibits, and WW2 fitted out by local enthusiasts. Both exhibitions are tremendous and well worth a visit

We lucked out with the weather and spent Friday exploring the area, visiting two favourite cellar doors (Villa Maria and Cloudy Bay) and having a strenuous walk up the Wither Hills which afforded magnificent views of Marlborough.

We headed to Picton on Saturday and mooched around in some galleries before boarding the Kaitaki again.

In one of the galleries The Old Girl spied a nice wall sculpture which I might see about purchasing and having shipped up for her birthday in January.

After a coffee and a bun we dropped the car off and made our way to the ferry terminal where we monkeyed around until sailing.

The crossing was a bit bumpy at times with big swells in the Cook Straight but went along uneventful except for this emergency happening.*

* It was a drill.