Sunny Sunday Vibes

Sunday 29 December

Sunday report - started with brekkie in the sun and Harley thinking he was a lap dog!

Louis was nursing a sore foot, so three of us took Harley for a walk around the block, Rapaura Road, Paul's Road, along the river and back up Jeffries Road to Rapaura.

This whole area is a patchwork of vineyards like cousin Nick's (grown and managed), big names like Matua, Stoneleigh, Cloudy Bay, Wither Hills and others known around the world with their cellar doors and often fully operational wineries on site, and boutique style smaller wineries like Hans Herzog. We were very taken with No.1 Family Estate which promised champagne style "methode traditionelle" bubbly!

Hans Herzog Abundant flora Abby racing the Pajero

Realised we were not going to be back in time to cycle over to our next engagement, so Louis came to collect me 1.5km from the end of the walk - Abby & Harley were keen to race us home!!! A quick "camp shower" (baby wipes) as it was scorchio out, then we swapped onto our Ebikes and set off for the Allan Scott Winery to meet Chris & Fiona on their way down to Wanaka.

They were catching up with some other old friends - it was almost a competition to see who had known who the longest! Fi was at Uni with Catherine in London back in the early 80s, and Louis was in a band with Chris, touring New Zealand in the mid 80s! Their friends Catherine & Miguel were tiki touring too so we gave them some pointers for some of our favourite South Island spots from our visit in 2022, including the Giant's House at Akaroa, Lake Tekapo & the Hooker Valley track but Mt Aoraki (Mt Cook).

I was busy getting the group selfie before we parted ways after a good catch up - and a lovely guy from another table stepped up and offered to take a pic for us... thank heavens for the selfie, as every shot he took included his thumb - oops!!! Almost managed to edit it out!

After a quick lunch back at Banjo we all piled into the Pajero and headed off to Pelorus Bridge for a dip in Te Hoiere river - turns out we were not the only ones to have that idea! The journey over felt very familiar as we had covered this route a couple of times already - but at least this time we could actually see the scenery without it being shrouded in cloud or hidden behind a downpour!

Pelorus Bridge was a popular spot on a hot & sunny Sunday afternoon - there were cars parked everywhere and the banks of the river were pretty busy. It also turned out to be midge-tastic and apparently I am their favourite flavour!

Last time we came here in March 2016 the water was so cold that Jez turned blue, his heart beat went dodgy and we had to lie him out on the hot stones under several towels to warm him back up again!!! Fortunately this time it was a lot warmer and after the others had swum upstream and done a few big jumps into the water holes, even I went in for a dip - as Michael McIntyre says, "It's lovely once you are in!"

Headed home via an ice cream stop in Havelock (weirding Abby out with the bizarre green shell mussel tributes) and ended the day back at Banjo with a BBQ, then trying to teach Abby & Jeremy the card game Sh1thead (that we’d learnt from Ellen & Ciarán) and video calling Cari in Wiltshire to try and persuade her to come out to join us! Maybe in 2026...?

Let’s hope Monday is less busy!