BROKEN DOWN BEFORE THE WINERIES!

Friday 21st January, 2011.
9am took Shrek to kennels at Wakefield south of Nelson for the weekend.
11am All packed up and ready to go. Hooked up caravan and off we started to Blenheim to enjoy the wineries for the weekend. DJ took Friday off work so we could get a good headstart.
Remembering this was our first trial run after the new oil cooler had been fitted........
Going along nicely and up a few hills temperature went up a little which I was a little concerned about as I thought we had fixed that problem. Carrying on up the Whangamoa's (I have to tell you are apparently the biggest hills in the South Island....we'll see) Still getting hot on hills and going down on downward slopes. Well then around the corner we came and BANG! Steam came out from under the bonnet in an almighty puff. Luckily we were on the downhill and there was a pull off area. We came to a holt and lifted the bonnet. What a mess it looked like 'SHREK' (The real Shrek, not mine) had bean squashed under there. It was all over the motor, windscreen, caravan and ground. The liquid didn't seem to be hot and the engine didn't smell at all.....fingers crossed there is no major damage.
 

OK..........WHAT NOW!





NOT GOOD I DON'T THINK. POOR OLD GIRL.




NEXT DAY
 .Bernie and DJ's car off to Blenheim without caravan. Lunch at the Mussel Pot in Havelock



Met some new friends!

Mussel Pot



1st Winery - Nautilus



Tasting at Nautilus



Motueka, Christmas and Cockles

You can't have a tree without candy cane's

Santa has been good to us this year!

Yes. Yummmmmmmmmy. Marlborough Cherries. Huge and juicy.

Against a 20c piece

Wakey, wakey. Santa's been.

Yay. Just what I asked for....Goofey!

Cockles at Marehau. Well just steam open in a little water until they open then drizzle with garlic butter and eat with fresh crusty bread. Man they were good.

How many?

Great hunting legs.

Christmas is definately for the kid's! This is Bernie's brother inlaw. Go Nige.

Well as you can see we had a great couple of days around the coast. Great weather and Shrek loved all his presents and so did we all. As you can imagine the cockles went down just nicely with a glass of Kahurangi Estate Chardonnay of coarse from Nelson.

Christmas Day at Jan (Bernie's sister) & Nige's.....with lots of presents

As you can see my blog is a bit mixed up with photo's here and there. Oh well can only improve I guess.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Gingerbread house I made with a candle inside

Shrek quite liked it as well, think he was looking for the gingerbread man!

Our park at the 'Smith's Camp Stoke'

Outdoor pool area

Nice shade under the tree

We had a great Christmas with Bernie's sister Janet, husband Nigel, DJ and Shrek in Tasman not far from Motueka. We started off with presents......so many thanks to all. Shrek got spoiled rotten. Then we had a nice breakfast and got ready for Christmas lunch at Nigel's brother's batch at Kina beach a couple of minutes drive from Jan and Nige's. There were alot of people and great food. Lots of gluten free's. I attempted a Christmas pudding made with cooked rice instead of flour? It was very nice. You couldn't even tell and it was really moist.
After watching Jamie Oliver in Sweden that week making salmon gravlax, Bernie and I decided that's what we'll make for Christmas lunch. We brought 2 fresh salmon fillets, lemon zest, chopped dill, rock salt, brown sugar and a couple of tot's of vodka. Pressed together with 2 bricks on top to press. Turned each day for 2 days. Then sour cream, S & P and chopped dill. Wow it was great, what a hit. Everyone went back for seconds. It surprisingly went a long way. Don (Nige's brother) his wife Issabella (Spanish) absolutely loved it. I wrote out the recipe for her.
After lunch we went for a well needed walk on Kina beach. It is situated in the nelson bay looks back to Nelson town.