The South Island had a big, bold and beautiful reputation so we were keen to hit the road after a quick pit stop in Picton. We faced the most critical decision of our holiday so far – West for craft beer (Nelson) and East for wine (Marlborough). Wine won out not least because our well repaired roof required some more permanent attention in Christchurch part way down the East coast.

We had reflected on our North island capers and decided to take it a bit easier for the second half of our trip. Limiting the km travelled each day and doing more mid point stop offs. 

Hurray for mid journey stop offs, the first was the Peter Yealands vineyard just South of Marlborough. New Zealand does many things well and wine and vineyards are two of them. 

Yealands is the first vineyard to become carbon neutral in the world it is an impressive and stunning place to visit, oh and the wine tasted alright too. For those Marlborough connoisseurs this vineyard is a little higher and further South than the main set and so the taste was quite different, ‘minerally’ I believe we were told. 

From there we continued South, destination Kaikoura, slower than expected though thanks to daddy stopping the van around every corner to take yet another photo of the scenery.

Kaikoura is beautiful with a breathtaking mountain backdrop and a fab seal colony at the end of the peninsula. Baby Barrett slept through two sets of seal viewings which we thoroughly enjoyed. The only annoyance was the whale watching company having a policy of minimum 3 years old for going on their excursions, silly in our mind as Baby Barrett would be strapped to one of us. We consoled ourselves with crayfish for lunch instead! 

Time to move on and we made our way further South to Hamner Springs since Baby Barrett has developed an addiction to thermals pools. He’s going to be so disappointed when we return to the UK… Clissold leisure centre baby pool just won’t cut it. 

From there we headed West crossing the backbone of the Southern alps via the dramatic Arthur’s Pass. Baby Barrett held up to the twists and turns in the road well and didn’t complain too much about the frequency of daddy’s photo stops.
We can also report that Arthurs Pass village cafe serves mean ANZAC cookies and good coffee (cakes now being a daily occurrence… Another thing to add to the list of things New Zealand does well) #holidaybelly. 

Arthur spat us out onto the West coast at Greymouth. It is grey. We got our first introduction to the West coast’s sandflies (ferocious & persistent). We left. Enough said.