Another wonderful sunny morning, so another 10k run for Andy. After he had recuperated, we headed out with James and Marian for breakfast in Blenheim centre, returning to Deux cafe for coffee and cakes – the breakfast of champions!

After a leisurely affair, catching up with more chat on our respective travel adventures, we returned to the hotel pool for a swim and some more sun worshipping.

With the call of the cellar door wineries proving too strong to resist, we eventually made our way to Wairau Winery for more wine tasting.

James is a lover of the Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, so it was only fitting that his 5 wine tasters started there and continued with a white wine bias. It’s fair to say he was in his element, enjoying every last mouthful of the wines on offer. That said his preferred Sav Blanc, was the entry level rather than the reserved level, proving he knows what he likes.

This was round one of the wine tasting for today, with the next stop being Wither Hills for a belated birthday lunch for Marian and an early one for James whose birthday is tomorrow the 11th Dec.

Lunch is served and it was lamb and salmon for the birthday party of two.

It’s definitely a birthday lunch we will all remember – so glad we got to do this together as a family in such a wonderful location.

After a fantastic lunch, we then went for a brief tour of the winery to view the barrels, before heading to the roof terrace to check out the vista over the estate.

After our second winery stop, our third and final destination was the prestigious Cloudy Bay, the home of Sav Blanc and James’ most favoured wine.

After a wonderful lunch and afternoon we returned to the hotel to take full advantage of the sunshine with some more worshipping at the feet of the pool.

To cap off the day together, we decided to go native and indulged in some fish and chips from the local fish bar, sitting in one of the nearby parks enjoying the time with Andy’s parents.

Still seems incredible being together so far from home, and am so pleased we were able to have this time together.

It’s been a pleasure having them with us for these two days, and we will be sad to wave goodbye to them tomorrow, when they head south to Christchurch and we head north west to Motueka.

But it’s on to the next chapter tomorrow, with our 3 day trip to Abel Tasmin for kayaking and trekking and maybe a little more wine tasting!!