Marahau to Kaikoura

Today we had one of our longer driving days of the trip. We had planned to break it up with lunch at a winery, but since apparently January 3rd is still a holiday here, most places we tried were either closed or completely booked. We gave up on eating at a winery and were just lucky to even find an open restaurant, where we ate before returning to a winery to do a tasting. Along our route we drove through many vineyards, but also a bunch of hop farms, which are set up interestingly to accommodate their climbing. The drive down the east coast was gorgeous, with nearly constant views of the rocky coast and beautiful blue water.Read more