The day was a little cloudy, but we decided to take a drive anyway. We took the advice of the salesgirl at the fruit & veg stand and went out to the Monkey Bay Walkway. It was a short half hour drive and we were on the coast in Cloudy Bay (the one with the water, not the winery). The Walkway was short, a quick trip up a ridge and back down to a couple of caves. The first cave had an underground channel to the Bay. Anna was led to it by the booming sound of waves crashing through the channel. Plus, you could hear the waves scattering the rocks as the water was sucked back in when the waves retreated. The waves were breaking nicely on the rocks and sand in the cove – we spent an enjoyable half hour or so just watching the water ... and a couple of sea gulls that were walking around the cove. Then, we drove 6 km over to Whites Bay on a narrow twisty road. There were many campers and families out enjoying Waitangi Day (anniversary of the 1840 Treaty signed between the British and Maori at Waitangi; similar to the US Independence Day holiday). We hiked a short distance up the trail to get some overhead pictures of the Bay before returning to the car.
It was just a little after noon as we were driving back on the cutoff road between SR 1 (the road to Picton and the ferry) and SR 6 (the road to Havelock and Nelson). So, we decided to visit the Makana Chocolate Factory, Cloudy Bay winery, and Alan Scott winery. We visited all three during our 2005 trip. The Factory was about the same except the empty fields had all been filled in with grapes and houses. The Cloudy Bay winery was disappointing – we didn't buy any wine there. Alan Scott was tasty (as expected) and we bough 3 bottles of wine, one of which we planned to share with with our hosts Shirley and Bob (they invited us to dinner).
