South Island and new friends!

The cruise through the Cook Strait was beautiful with clear blue skies and a very calm sea. We had read that this crossing can be quite treacherous and uncomfortable (Janet and John can testify to this) but not today. The ship was busy as this is Labour weekend in NZ with Monday being a bank holiday.
It’s a funny old world. When we first got on board the ship we found a couple of seats and plonked ourselves down. A few moments later another couple asked if the seats opposite us were taken to which we said no and they sat down. After a brief introduction found out they were Jim and Sue from England and in fact from Reigate not fifteen miles away from us. So where are you going to? Marlborough same as us. Where are you staying? Marlborough Vintners, same as us also for two nights. They were being collected from Picton and driven to the hotel whereas we were picking up our rental car and driving ourselves.
When we arrived in Picton we saw this huge cruise ship the same one that was in Wellington the previous day. There was quite a lengthy queue to collect the car and this was due to it being a Bank Holiday weekend and the cruise ship. We were told that the number of passengers and crew on the ship exceeded the population of Picton!
Once we had the car it was a thirty minute drive down to our hotel. The scenery and views here are spectacular. The Marlborough area is the principal area in NZ for wine particularly Sauvignon Blanc and there are many estates with names we are familiar with. Checked into the hotel which has about twenty self contained apartments and drove round to ours where we were greeted by our neighbours - Jim and Sue! They are in the apartment next door.
We have a lot of space in this apartment so are able to get everything unpacked and Jane was able to catch up on the washing before we popped over the road to the Whitehaven estate to taste the Sauvignon Blanc - when in Rome etc...
They have an excellent restaurant here and we were joined by Jim and Sue with the major topic of conversation being where are we going to watch the rugby. The hotel has a small bar but no TV so we finished up all coming back to our room to watch it. In the days leading up to the match there was a lot of confidence here that the All Blacks were going to win whilst recognising that England were a good team. Their view was that if they played as well against England as they had against Ireland it would be a comfortable victory - not so!Read more