Another early morning excursion to a winery... this time to Cloudy Bay, on the South Island. They're most famous for their Sauvignon Blanc. even though this place actually gave us a new glass for each wine, Joanna still liked the presentation at Te Awa better.
Just outside of the cellar of Cloudy Bay, Janne and I stand in front of the vineyards.
Sheep, sheep everywhere...
One lane bridges are a lot of fun, especially on those windy mountain roads. One side of traffic always had the right of way, and this was indicated by circular signs with arrows. The bigger arrow always had the right of way.
We've found out why New Zealand is called the "Land of the Long White Cloud" (Aotearoa)... all the fog!
And now we're in Nelson, at the Christ Church Cathedral. They had some lovely stained glass windows. This one is next to a really nice rose one, but I got a postcard instead of taking a picture. The main street, Trafalgar, actually went AROUND the cathedral and you could see the cross everywhere in town.
There are some really weird looking birds around here. Both Janne and I took a fancy to this one, it's a Takahe.
We also went to the Founder Historic Village. We thought Grandpa in particular might like this shot. There was an old machinery area and another spot that had a linotype and a lot of other old buildings. Would you believe they're still using the school building as a school?
Founder Historic Village, Nelson
Like I said, there was a lot of neat stuff to look at in the village, so here's Jo checking out some old vacuum cleaners.
There was even a fern garden near the school, so Janne and I went exploring.
And here's the place where we'd stayed. It's called the Cathedral Inn because this is where the church hierarchy would stay when they visited when this was part of the church property. You know how I said the last place was classy? Well, you wouldn't believe this place! I know I still don't!
Here are some shots of the insides of this amazing two-story bed and breakfast. Up the stairs, past the kitchenette and to the right is where Jo and I are staying in a King size bed. It's small room, but really nice.
Here's the hallway just outside Janne's room and the hallway leading to the staircase.
At the top of the main staircase was a small sitting area.
The dining room and living room had a fireplace, cozy chairs and nice music playing all the time.
Janne stands near the REAL fireplace in the living/dining room.
Janne and Joanna on the main staircase, although there are several...
Janne's room (they didn't have any three person rooms, so Janne gets one all to herself, bathroom and all).
Well, the only other eventful thing right now is drying out our laundry, as we started washing this morning at the hotel and the dryer was a piece of crap! Janne and I were in the room putting our wet socks in frying pans, in the oven, in an attempt to dry them off! Needless to say, we ended up packing our wet clothes into a bag to dry at another time and when we left, our jeans were still soaking wet... AND WE WERE WEARING THEM! Shoot! I just remembered! I wrote you saying that last night's hotel was classy! Sorry, the night before last's was... last night was probably equivalent to the quality of a Super 8, but without any heat. Luckily, we found the electric blankets, so that worked out. Anyway, the couple at the Cathedral Inn were quite nice and even let us finish drying our laundry.
And this is what Janne and I had for dinner when we walked downtown to Cafe Affair. It's pork and calamari. Interesting, huh? Janne also tried the Riesling.