Today I got up at 5:30 AM to head to one of the great wine regions of New Zealand: Marlborough. It was all a bit rushed, but I did have a nice time and tasted some great wines. The view was also delicious:

I've got notes on wines and things, but I'll save that for when I'm feeling a little bit less hungry and tired.

I'm seriously about to give up on blogging my photos. Tonight's blog post has been eaten TWICE because of these two pictures:

Have you ever been to a place where everything looks sort of familiar? My train ride down the east coast of the south island of New Zealand was like that today. It was like Wales, British Columbia and San Jose all smooched into one. It's probably pretty obvious which bits are which but just in case: the Pacific ocean is very much like the Pacific ocean. The sheep covered hills are very much like the sheep covered hills. And the sun burnt yellow hills are very much like the sun burnt yellow hills. Oh! also! the vineyards are like the vineyards. Go figure.

The journey took 13 hours from door to door but it was well worth it and a trip I'm looking forward to making again when I go back up to Wellington. I'll probably spend more time in the open air viewing train if the weather's nice. But if it's not, I've got some decent pictures and some pleasant memories that will do me just fine. In the mean time, a few images for you (and there are more on Flickr too):