Rus and I had been looking forward to a trip to Blenheim since we arrived in New Zealand.  About four hours north of Christchurch, with slightly warmer and sunnier weather, Blenheim is home to New Zealand’s largest vineyard region, the Marlborough region - and over sixty-five wineries.  The bleak, cold Christchurch weather prodded us north…

I booked our stay at St. Leonard’s Cottage, a homestead nestled amongst the vines in the heart of Blenheim’s wine country. We rented a car, packed it up, and was on our way mid-afternoon on Saturday.  The ride north on State Highway 1 is immensely beautiful and actually a pleasure to experience.  Once we were near Kaikoura, nearly two hours into our trip, the snow-capped mountains came into view, alongside the blue ocean to the right.  With daylight fading, this sight gave a new meaning of “purple mountains’ majesty”!

Soon it was dark (and I mean dark - no lights anywhere), and the rain began to fall.  We were hoping for a weekend of dry, sunny weather, but it was starting to look like the damp cold was following us.  We drove through the town centre and after a few missed turns here and there, we found the road where our accommodation was located.  Down a long, dark driveway, we came upon the house, an old single-story character estate built in the early 1800’s, and were immediately greeted by Paul and Daphne, our hosts.  Paul showed us to our self-contained cottage, called “The Shearer’s Quarters”.  It was one big room with a queen and a twin bed, a kitchenette complete with table and four chairs, sitting area, and full bath. It was fabulous!  Under the impression that St. Leonard’s was bed-and-breakfast, I asked when breakfast would be served. Daphne kindly informed us that breakfast was in the fridge in the cottage - fresh eggs from their hens, freshly-squeezed orange juice from the oranges in the orchard, and homemade jelly and marmalade to eat with toast; we could make breakfast ourselves at our leisure.  Yum!  I couldn’t wait for breakfast in the morning; however, in the meantime, it was time to venture out in search of dinner.   It was after 8:00PM, and we were hungry!

We got back in the care and drove back into town in search of a restaurant Paul and Daphne recommended.  Surprisingly, there was little activity going on in the town centre on a  Saturday night!  The cold and drizzly weather might have been a deterent.  Or, perhaps as harvest had recently ended, all of the grape-pickers returned to their homes.  Anyway, we were able to get a table at a wine bar called Scotch right away.  Rus and I both ordered steak and a bottle of pinot noir - from Marlborough, of course!  It was a beautiful wine called Clayridge. The steak was decent; not the best but still quite nice.  We each had a glass of wine and planned on taking the rest back to the room; however, we were informed by our server that we could not take the bottle with us (the rules in Blenheim are different from Christchurch, where one is permitted to take an unfinished bottle home).  So, since Rus was driving and not wanting to “waste” a perfectly good bottle of wine, we talked and people-watched at the restaurant for another hour whilst I finished the rest of the bottle of wine (tough job, huh?).  Afterwards, we made our way back to the cottage.

After a nice, hot shower, we climbed into the most comfortable bed we had experienced in New Zealand before drifting off to rest up for Sunday’s activities…