​Kelsey's Travel Blog!​
I travel not to escape life, but to be sure that life will not escape me! Come join me!
Nelson and Wine Tasting
As I type, I am in our little silver, Toyota car driving from Westport, New Zealand to Franz Josef, home to the famous Franz Josef Glacier, a sight I am sure that I will be seeing when we get there.
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We have only been here four days, and I already feel as though I am a part of the culture and the people. New Zealand, I can confidently say, is one of the most visually beautiful countries I have ever been in. With it comes to raw-natural beauty, New Zealand may take the cake. You could say I now understand why it has been the location of choice for movies like Lord of the Rings. The south island is green and lush, full of thick trees, rolling hills laced with growing vines to be made into world class wine, beautiful blue skies, and an ocean that is literally transparent. I have discovered that my favorite thing to do is to put on my ipod in the car and just watch nature fly by me as we drive. You can’t help but be very philosophical and reflective when you watch the beautiful nature just go on by you, but New Zealand has that effect.
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Once we sorted out our driving situation, we headed our way down the west coast from Nelson towards Moteuka. One of the most notable industries in New Zealand is found in the very district we were in: Wine. Nelson is known as one of the top wine districts in New Zealand and is thought to have the best climate for making wine in the country. It gets an average of over 2400 hour of sunshine per year. Being the Winos that we are, my step mom and I insisted on stopping for a wine tasting along the way. We came across Rimu Grove, a winery owned by a man from California who had relocated to New Zealand on a whim and decided to start to make wine. I would really love to get into the wine making business because being around world class wine on a regular basis does not seem like a bad job to me. None of his wine is exported internationally, which is unfortunate since I couldn’t help but have a serious love affair with the Pinot Noir.
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I think it goes without saying that I may have found my paradise.
When we finally arrived after a grueling 24 hour process across the Pacific ocean, we spent one night in Auckland to re-energize and to try to fight the wicked battle against jet-lag, and returned to the Auckland airport to catch a small domestic Air New Zealand flight to Nelson, New Zealand. Nelson is a town of 46,000 people located on the northern coast of the South Island. It is most known for its eclectic art culture and craft scene and in my opinion is quite the cute and quaint town. We had lunch and were off to our first official destination, Moteuka. Our first, and perhaps most difficult challenge manifested the moment we walked up to the rental car. What many people do not realize about New Zealand is that they, like their British settlers, drive on the left side of the road and the drivers’ wheel is located on the right side of the car. Because this is my first official experience in a former British colony, the confusion required to relearn how to drive a car is thoroughly mind blowing. Round-a-bouts go clockwise, there are left turns on red lights instead of right-on-reds, you have to shift gears with your left hand instead of with your right… it is quite strange.
