Big Trip

Today we drove from our lovely camp site at Spring Creek down the east coast to Kaikoura. Not directly, of course. First we went to a chocolate factory. Well, when I say factory, it was more of a large chocolate maker's kitchen with a shop next door. And they forced us to taste the products: macadamia nut brittle, macadamia & toffee popcorn, macadamia nut bark, cherry truffles. It was awful. We felt compelled to buy some. Next stop, the Cloudy Bay winery. Guess what? They forced us to taste the products, and we felt compelled to buy some very nice bubbly for Christmas and some dessert wine. They recommended a fruit farm round the corner, where we went and picked some wonderfully juicy boysenberries (rather a lot, actually), and felt compelled to buy some cherries & freshly picked strawberries from the shop too. Then we dropped into the Montana winery for a delicious lunch. We managed to catch a winery tour too, where they made us taste the products, and oddly enough, we felt compelled to buy some.
Finally, we fetched up at Kaikoura, at a great camp site with a playground, trampolines and a pool.