Anil and Rishi have now moved due south to Christchurch. I got a long sms from Anil romanticizing about the place. I’m sure he copied it from one of the travel brochures, but I must write it down here, it’s quite amusing.

‘From the silvery beaches of the coast to the jagged peaks of the Southern Alps, the Canterbury landscape is impossible to ignore. The scenery stretches for miles to include panoramas of ocean or mountains, great sweeps of pastureland and massive amounts of sky.’ Massive amounts of sky!?? Clearly!

Anil & Rishi are staying at the Matariki Bed and Breakfast for NZ $ 110 a night. The breakfast’ supposed to be quite nice. But that’s it from the kiwis for now.

“We travelled with Franz Josef Glacier Guides, an internationally recognized guiding operation. They lead novice and experienced clients through glacier terrain. Rishi and myself went on the full day glacier expedition, which included a heli-hike and we also got to do a little ice-climbing as well.”

“The all day expedition took us deep in the heart of the glacier with the help of experienced guides. We spent around 6 hours on the ice – squeezing through tight crevasses and sliding through ice caves! It’s simply wonderful! We began with a scenic flight, where we landed high up on the glacier and spent a couple of hours just marvelling at the blue ice formations. This is a really a fantastic side of NZ that we just discovered and hope to see Fox Glacier as well!”

“We’ve moved south to a place called West Coast now. The place seems to be filled with backpackers, which is a good thing because it can only mean that West Coast is an activity filled place. In fact, we decided to check in to one of the backpacker lodges here in West Coast. There are around 23 of them in this place. We’re staying at the Royal BBH Backpackers Hostel for NZ $20 a night! Cool, huh? The lodge is about 25 minutes from Franz Josef, a small town here in West Coast. Rishi’s going out to check out what’s hot in Franz Josef, while I sit up here and write. I hope you’re saving my mails dude because it’s my only journal and I know I’m not a very engaging writer, but try and be a little sympathetic, OK?”

“I’m off to sleep now. I want to get as much rest as I can before we step out to greet the living here in West Coast. First impressions – we’re going to definitely like this place just as much as we did the last.”

P.S. Rishi’s brought with him a couple of bottles of Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, so it’s going to be quite a party for the next three days. Cheerio!

“The Marlborough Grape Ride traverses a 101km circuit through NZ’s stunning scenery. From the Forrest Estate Winery stone wall which is located in the capital of the New Zealand wine industry, Renwick, it’s a flat route to Blenheim. Riders then head north and gently climb into Picton with an exhilarating descent into the centre of the town. Climbing out of Picton, the route follows the picturesque Queen Charlotte Drive around the head of Queen Charlotte and Pelorus Sounds, literally a ride through nature’s photo album. The stunning scenery of Ngakuta and Momorangi Bays passes as the ride winds and twists to The Grove. The ride finally culminates at Renwick. Off the bike and you’re in the grapes with our celebrity guests, treading grapes for processing into an exclusive Forrest Estate vintage for next year’s event! Sounds cool, huh? Rishi plans on volunteering. I think it sounds like a good idea. We won’t get to cycle, but we’ll get to be in the thick of the action in some way, I think. Marlborough’s a lot of fun!”

“On our first day, we took a trip around the Blenheim market place in the middle of town, exploring the shops and café. We finally stopped off at a restaurant for wine and a quick meal. Post Lunch, we hired cycles and took a ride on a wine trail! We visited the Allan Scott Wine Estates. The winery comprises 80 hectares of vineyards surrounding the wineries. The wineries specialize in Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Pinot Gris to name a few. Suffice to say that we took a greedy taste of every possible wine.”

“Now here’s a bit of advice from a Marlborough Man, if you’re planning on drinking copious amounts of wine, don’t hire a cycle! Well, you can only imagine what a time we had cycling back to the Motel. We crashed early and decided to wake early and check out the spa at The BEC Spa Resort.”

“The BEC Spa turned out to be a dream. It is situated in a secluded hilltop against the backdrop of mountains and overlooks countless vineyards. We spent most of the morning chilling out in the spa pool and steam room. I did something called shiatsu body therapy. It’s a Japanese work of art, really. It’s pretty much like acupuncture. Rishi went in for the Swedish massage! He thought it might mean a massage given by Swedish women, but instead it was a massage using aromatherapy. We landed up spending the entire day at the resort. We did nothing but sleep, eat and pamper ourselves, which I think we deserved. There’s so much to see and do here that you end up burning a lot of calories and the best part of it is that you don’t really feel tired at all. We’re supposed to leave Marlborough tomorrow evening, but there’s still much to see here. Rishi wants to check out a casino here in NZ. I’m not sure if Marlborough has a Casino, but we’re going to check anyway. Keep you posted.”

“We’re now in a place called Marlborough. It’s our first day here and we’re still planning out our itinerary. Initial comments – Marlborough basks in year-round sunshine, which makes Rishi a very happy man. The commercial hub of Marlborough is Blenheim, a very popular place for wine drinkers. Marlborough is NZ’s largest winemaking region with around 65 wineries and 290 grape growers. From the moment we set foot on this soil, we’ve been filling ourselves with Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. Have you ever heard of the Sounds? The Marlborough Sounds are a network of fjiord-like waterways, sheltered by steep hills, most clad in native and timber forests. We arrived at Marlborough by sea and passed through these coves and bays of Queen Charlotte Sound. It’s a wilderness of native forest and bush that reaches down to secluded beaches. You’ve got to see this place to believe it, it’s just awesome! Anyway, we’re planning on hiring cycles tomorrow and going on a trip to one of these wineries. More later…”

The Heaphy track follows a river which makes for a fantastic scenic hike through the forests. The park is filled with native birds like the Weka, Pipit, tui, bellbird and pigeon.

From Takaka, the boys moved on to Collingwood, where they spent the night at Skara Brae Garden Motel [NZ $ 100]

The only thing that Anil found interesting in Collingwood was a homemade Scallop Pie and a caving expedition at Te Anaroa Caves. The caves are supposed to be one of the most beautiful things in New Zealand. Filled with Stalactites and Stalagmites, the Te Anaroa Caves even have fossilized shellfish. The best part was when their guide suggested that they turn off their flashlights for a minute. In the complete darkness, the walls above filled up with glow worms! Entry fee was NZ $ 25 for a single adult.

However, judging from Anil’s descriptions, Collingwood sounds like a place to calm your nerves down from the rest of the adventure filled New Zealand. They spent the entire day sleeping, eating and making plans to move further south during the week hitting the city of Marlborough.

My guess is that Anil and Rishi would have stayed at Marlborough for about two days before travelling further south. I know Anil’s getting very impatient about reaching the southern most tip of NZ.