Thursday, 17 February

Yet another surprisingly good day and yet again something completely different to do. After our special dinner the night before we got off to a slow start before setting off to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Museum just a few miles away. This is a much acclaimed collection of World War I aeroplanes, mostly replicas but nevertheless very good. What set it apart were the settings for the planes and this is explained by the fact that Peter Jackson, director of Lord of the Rings, has a major financial interest in the museum and so the tableaux are all done by film set makers.

From there we went another couple of miles to the very famous Cloudy Bay winery – only to please Deborah you understand!! Cheers Deborah, we did think about you as we tasted our way through Pelorus, Sauvignon Blanc, Te Koko, Pinot Gris and a Pinot Noir.

Although we have seen some wonderful scenery everywhere we have been in New Zealand this area is absolutely beautiful and we are rapidly running out of superlatives! All the vineyards are quite close together and in a wide plain surrounded by stunning hills and mountains.

Then we drove into Blenheim and amongst other things went to the art gallery where they had an exhibition of art illustrations for children’s books which was fascinating. We thought about which stories and pictures our grandson Ben would like!

In fact over the last couple of days Ben has been in our thoughts quite a lot as our hosts have a 9 week old baby boy called Noah and so they have been happy to share baby talk with us.

Still no comments and we know that some of you have tried to post comments so perhaps we should set a challenge to see who can fathom it out first! In the meantime, emails are much appreciated as it's nice to know it isn't just a one-way flow of information.