What a great way to spend four days with friends having another "epic" adventure!!

Deju Vu was the feeling when we woke on our first morning before leaving. We had exactly the same weather pattern as in 2009 for our Hawkes Bay safari. Front moving through west to east, low cloud, drizzle but clearing.... but at what point! Weather cams were studied at length, every hour the rain radar was meticulous watched to see how quickly it was passing... and then what about the wind!! After many shall we, can we discussions... three hours after our due departure time.... off we went!

Getting off of North Shore was interesting, but then with the front clearly moving we were off south to Te Kuiti. With seven helicopters in loose formation, Auckland Tower were gracious to let the gaggle through unhindered over the top of the 747's landing.

After refueling at Te Kuiti where we were joined by Leigh and gang in the squirral, we made our way over the rugged Wanganui river landscape with Mt Ruapheu looming, to land over some wires on the old hospital grounds in Raetihi and the very welcome sight of a champagne clad tray held by our gorgeous hostess Sandy of Snowy Waters Lodge.

Having had to change the itinerary around we then got stuck into the fun and games as the flying was over for the day.

First up we were tractored into town on hay bales to have wine at the oldest theatre in NZ and split into teams for a pioneer treasure quiz around town! I don't know what the locals made of us as we accosted them asking lots of questions about the history of the area but i think we would certainly have made an impression and it was a great way to find out some facts of the bygone pioneer days.

Our tractor taxi then whisked us back to be greeted on our beds by some doctors and nurses outfits... well what a laugh!! As you can imagine it set the tone.. or lowered it even further...as we indulged in goat curry, more wine and the best legs competition.... what an awesome fun night!

After a strong Volcanic coffee in the morning, we fired off to pick our way through the early mist to the Blue Duck Lodge on the Wanganui River for breakfast.

Dan and his team put on an awesome feed and then we were spilt into two groups, one for jetboating and the other off in the polaris buggies to see first hand what the pioneers had to do to scratch an existence after the first world war. Dan's farm is a magical place and it was great fun to hoon in the buggies and see what an awesome job they are doing to regenerate the wildlife and to keep alive the memories of what those guys had to go through... the giant weta cave was not on my list of greatest experiences though!!

After lunch, we said our goodbyes and off we headed to the top of the south island and the magic of the Marlborough Sounds. After a couple of refuels, we headed across Cook Straight on a near perfect day. 10kts of wind and not a cloud in the sky. 

We headed down Queen Charlotte Sound, over Picton to land on Mike and Judy's front lawn in Blenheim. Graciously they greeted us with the best chilled Savy and a cheeseboard...wouldn't it be nice if you were greeted like that everywhere you landed! Thanks guys, we really appreciated your warm and generous hospitality.

Dinner that night was a first class affair but a more subdued one than the night before after a long great day...and we didn't want to burn the candle at both ends too much as we had an even longer day to come.

After a leisurely breakfast, we headed off to Peter Jacksons Omaka heritage centre... The girls got the giggles early in the tour so had to vacate, but the rest of us were fascinated by the set up of these old WW1 planes and the history behind them.

Then it was on to the main theme of the day.... wine tour by bike!! After pissing off the bike owner by running amuck all over his new front lawn... off we went at various speeds in search of marlborough gold!

We were all supposed to be doing our own thing, but inevitably we ended up en mass creating havoc to some of the best vineyards in the country. After a great long leisurely lunch and whilst Roy paid the bill, the rest buggered off in search of more vino, only to make the wrong turn out of the gate and go and extra 10 miles in the wrong direction.... meanwhile Nigel-no-mates-Roy (who hadn't taken the wrong turn) was left by himself boring the poor girl rotten in the next vineyard!

After a hard slog back into wind, chinese was on the menu that night in downtown Blenheim which Roy's Rent Boys found out not to be the most liviest of towns to go out in searching for action, everyone had an earlyish night.

To be continued....