Day 9.......Hastings to Martinborough.....

Woke early to set off on my longest drive yet of the trip, 248km to the wine country of Martinborough.

No hot water in the showers so a wet wipe wash and cold hair splash, no Internet to blog on either so my day was not going as planned, but hey how I was on the other side of the world on my hols so what did it matter ( who needs prozac.....)

From the outset this promised to be a lovely drive, me, Trevor, gorgeous sunshine and amazing farming communities with the rolling hills of the nice bits of the Kent countryside, magnified by a million.  First stop in a place called wiapawa tl get petrol.  In I go with my $27 in hand thinking that was cheap, to be told 'thats litres sweetie, I want $60! Coffee needed.... And as I was walking back to Trevor I bumped into Gary Glitter!! I kid you not! (no pun intended). Honest, if he is no longer in jail or Thailand, he is living amount the unsuspecting people of Wiapawa.....

As Trevor and I watched the fields of sheep, cows and farming communities go by I needed to stop for my coffee and muffin, and kinda needed a wee.  Now I have a portable pottie of. Board but you are not getting me using that when there are perfectly good bushes around, so we pulled up in a lovely picnic site next to a field of very lovely cows and it soon became apparent that this was a rather main road.  So with some nifty parking, I went,  sorry Trevor, I think i may have got some on your tyre...

Woodville then came into view, again one of these quaint rural communities that are all along this highway, and I stopped at a shop called 'for frocks sake' and purchased some rather lovely jewellery, the first real thing I have bought myself so far!

I found a memorial Anzac bridge which I stopped at and took some pics and then my first road sign warning of Kiwi's.  The bird not the people.  Although I am finding them very nice, they not as laid back as I was expecting them to be, bit more uptight than the Aussie, but still nice.

I then came across a wildlife sanctuary promising my first sight of a kiwi bird and a rare white one at that, so I paid my money and in I went.  And there they were, in a very dark enclosure as they are nocturnal and they are bigger than I was expecting.  I observed the no flash photography rule and didn't have much success and then a lady wearing a fluorescent vest who I can only assume worked there, asked me not to use flash.  It took 20 mins of explaining that it was just the light that said the picture had taken, and she can't have been satisfied as she then promptly followed me round the ground until the next stop, the eel feeding.

There was a man there among the small crowd who had obviously worked there at some point and he was reminiscing when they used to catch eels when they were kids, and the lady feeding them said 'yes they are lovely aren't they?' To which I replied 'yes, especially with pie and mash.....' That was my cue to leave......

So I soldiered on and Martinborough came into view.  Stunning.  The campsite was amazeballs,  small, very clean, in a field next to a vineyard, everything I was hoping for.  Interweb was down, but hey, look where I am and as much as I love my blog, it could (and would) wait.

I had been informed that there were 10 vineyards within walking distance of the park and the was to be my tomorrow job, this afternoon I wandered into the gorgeous town to take advantage of nit having to drive for 3 days.

And I'm ashamed to say, take advantage it did.  Now I would love to tell you all about it but if I'm honest I can't really remember.  What I do remember is finding a little Micro Wine bar with 22 different type of ale and even more wine, I sampled dark ale, one with oysters in, at garlic prawns, squid and lamb koftas, followed by bubbles and wine.  Some to 2 local twin ladies and a gay fella, then thought I should go.

I don't recall getting back to the campsite (sorry mum) but I did and then promptly threw up for the remainder of the evening.......

Had a bloody good day though!!!!!!!  Maybe the people I text and rang that afternoon may be able to fill the gaps.......

Until next time.......