As usual, we began out morning with a small fishing mission. Zhoel caught his first South Island snapper. Apparently, they are quite rare down here. We cooked it with some more fresh watercress for breakfast and then packed up our car for the trip to Blenheim. We said goodbye to our undisclosed fishing location and headed out.
The drive back seemed much faster than on the way in, despite multiple photo stops.
When we arrived in Blenheim we wandered around for a bit and killed time until Zhoel’s friend Fran was finished with work. The makeup of the town seemed to lean surprisingly toward a high number of young professionals. The most distinguishing factor of Blenheim is the huge number of local wineries. There are dozens and all of the wine is high quality.
We headed to Fran and Laurie’s house for the night. They are lovely people. Fran is the executive chef at a local winery and Laurie is a lawyer, but she just had their second child, Tommy, three weeks ago. They also have an older daughter, Annie Bella, who is three and a half and two boxers, George and Lola. We enjoyed wine from Fran’s winery and he made some amazing steaks for dinner. We had a great night getting to know each other!
The Marauding Maineiac 