As enjoyable as my North Island adventuring has been, I headed off to the South Island with a skip in my step knowing that the consensus among many is that things only get better the further south you go. It’s no secret that the South Island takes the prize for jaw dropping scenery and it’s no secret that nature is my thing.
So I travelled over the Cook Strait nice and early in the morning on the inter-islander ferry.
The trip took over three hours crossing through the Marlborough Sound, my eyes peeled for whales (which never showed). It was a relatively smooth trip though and I was there in a jiffy!
For the next part of my trip I decided to do with the tour company Topdeck to make it easy to get about the icy island, particularly traveling over to the glaciers (the place I’m most looking forward to!)
There was a full bus of about 30 of us which is the biggest group of people I have ever travelled with! Everyone was really nice, a mix of Aussies, Canadians and Europeans, though I was the oldest at 32, they ranged down to about 20 which was an adjustment. I have previously travelled with Intrepid tours who have smaller groups (12 maximum), a wider age group (mid twenties to fifties, with the average around 30) and who travel on local transport not their own dedicated tour vehicle. I think by nature I’m more suited to the Intrepid style, but I enjoyed what Topdeck had to offer and had a great time.
Our first stop was to a winery I’m the Malborough region – Forrest Wines.
There was lots of taste testing but my favourite thing was the picturesque landscape and the first glimpses of mountain ranges along the horizon.
And the sheep ;-)
From here we piled back in the bus and drove down to Nelson, via a night stopover in Christchurch. More on that in the next post!
Latest posts by Donna (see all)
- Kosciuszko Full Moon Adventure - April 29, 2018
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- Moutain Bike Riding Down Mt Lofty - January 27, 2017
