Campervan Day 3

The rain continued to fall pretty hard this morning and our Myths and Legends Eco tour people called and said it would probably be an experience we could do without in the weather...luckily as we headed down to Blenheim it brightened up and warmed up a bit for our wine tasting at Wither Hills.  It was delicious and we ended up with 3 bottles, the 3 that were for sale at the cellar door only.  We chose the Riesling, a Sauvingnon Blanc (a different one than we had at the restaurant yesterday) and the 2003 vintage Pino Noir.  The building certainly was as described in the book, “an architectural gem!”  They dining room was all booked for the day for lunch, so we continued on to Cloudy Bay winery for another complimentary tasting.  There we tried some of their famous bubbly, some more Sauvignon Blanc (including their oaky Te Kako), Chardonnay, Riesling and Pino Noir.  We also tried some extremely sweet vintages of whites that tasted almost syrup-like!  We asked for a place they recommended for dinner, and looked through some menus to find this excellent-sounding Italian place.  When we found it in town, we were surprised to see they were already open mid-afternoon (because we were expecting to have to wait until dinner time).  Turns out, they didn’t have much of a lunch menu at all and weren’t even open for dinner tonight, but tomorrow night they would be....so far, not our day for finding a place to eat!  Oh and before that, we though we’d try to find a bakery that the Lonely Planet book recommended and walked up to the street to address.  We ended up asking a guy at a motel desk...turns out it was on Main Rd of a town about 40km away...oops, it was just listed with places in the region I guess!  So we continued on our drive south to Kaikoura.  It was another really pretty drive, especially when we got to the coast and saw the huge surf!  It was extremely windy and by the time we got here the rain had picked up again and was really coming down hard.  We parked and plugged into power then made a run for it to a recommended cafe right across the road.  Turns out they were booked for the night as well!  We’re learning that apparently we need to make bookings for everything!  We tried the place next door and luckily they had space for us (although they did ask if we had made a booking as well).  The food at Tutis was actually pretty yummy and filled us right up!  The rain had stopped by the end of the meal and by nightfall the skies were crystal clear, hopefully a sign of a nice, warm, sunny day tomorrow!  Tonight is still pretty chilly outside but I’m hoping we get some more summery-feeling weather soon!!  I’d actually like to have to use my sunscreen please.