South Island Here We Come

We left Chez Christie reasonably early to catch the ferry.

Last time we did this crossing was decades ago. The ferry has got a bit flash nowadays.

The food used to be just pies and bob’s worth of chips in the past.

Now we have The Big Kiwi Breakfast $12

Good value.

It was an easy crossing…the boat barely moved…30 years ago when we lived in Wellington, we used to sail over this dodgy strait in a 39ft Cavalier Yacht we were involved in, that was a different kettle of fish. Can be treacherous

Off in Picton and on the road again.
Look at the beautiful colour of the South Island Sky

We drove to the Wairau River Winery and Restaurant.

Above see the lovely tree lined avenue to the Winery itself. Of course that's not the restaurant...we made a mistake... so back down the road and finally we reached our luncheon destination.

Our friend Annie works here on Mondays she is the excellent maitress ‘d
It is a beautiful stone building...according to Tony our lunch companion and Annie's husband...the family built it themselves.

As lovely as it looks, it was a bit chilly to eat outdoors so we dined in with Annie!

The menu was really innovative and finally we chose.

The food is sensational.

Tony and I had Vietnamese Prawn and Chicken Salad and Dale had Smoked Fish Cakes with Proscuitto and Hard boiled Eggs
That food was paired with their excellent Gewürztraminer.

We didn’t dally as we were off to Nelson to visit Linda
We will be re-visiting Tony and Annie later
Tony suggested we called into the Slip Inn for a coffee (and cake)
Overlooking the Marina. Good coffee good Devil’s Food Cake

Quite taken with the billboard outside
"Pain is inevitable but suffering is optional"

We had to gas up at Havelock nice surprise. Straight ahead was this Art Gallery.

The Tuatara art work on the exterior was organised by a mad friend Peter Fyfe.

The artist was an Inuit he had discovered
Amazing piece of work

Linda used to live on a 25 acre block in Richmond on the outskirts of Nelson but has moved back into town.
Our timing was a bit bad...like Annie, Monday is the only day she works.
So after settling us in she went to work. She runs the bar at one of Nelson’s top Hotels
Harry her son looked after us. The stomach’s were rumbling
Time for a drink and food/ The drink was consumed at Linda’s Bar

The lovely Linda on the right.

We did a little Tiki Tour of Nelson looking for fish and chips but finally settle for Indian.Very nice to was too.

Didn't get a shot of the food but here are two satisfied customers outside of Little India

Dale and Harry went to bed.
I sat up with Linda’s boarders Penny and Clare, get in a few extra wines. NOT

We are really ploughing through the wine
We had limited but quality time with Linda and Harry

I would award this establishment
♥♥♥♥♥
Great food, great wine, good bed, nice little garden, Superb company, excellent shower.

And a couple of dogs.