Punched in the taste buds

I'm in New Zealand!!  I made it to Queenstown last night after an adventure sea kayaking through the Abel Tasman (this picture was taken at low tide).....

hanging with a local sperm whale and a pod of dusky dolphins in Kaikoura.....

checking out some of the redevelopment projects in Christchurch like Restart....

 cruising through the Marlborough Sounds and a green shell mussel farm...

and what I'd been waiting for.....

(This picture was put on steroids with the help of Instagram but I think it really says something about what it felt like to be there).

My visit to Marlborough.  I've been in love with the sauvignon blancs from this region for far too long and though this pic is of vines growing gruner veltliner (which I developed quite the crush on in Vienna a few years back) every wine I tried here in Marlborough punched my taste buds with flavour.

I can't begin to say how grateful I am for this trip, that I get to write about it (stay tuned for articles and blogs published to Travelweek both in print and online, and am knocking off something on my bucket list.

The thing is I'm not even done yet!  Tomorrow I take a helicopter ride through places in Queenstown and do a bit of rafting (yikes!) and on Thursday it's off to the spa before I head home, so stay tuned....

Yes, I am supremely lucky.  Why yes, I am.