Day 50, in which we breakfast on wine then fill our faces with mussels

Breakfast involved tasting a couple of wines at the Highfield Estate – reputed to be the vineyard with the best views in Renwick, but too far up a steep hill to be on our cycling route yesterday – followed by smoked salmon bagels at the St Clair winery. This latter is the largest family owned vineyard in New Zealand and a regular winner of awards, but we didn't try any of their wines since we were driving up to the north coast and along to Nelson.

We passed through a number of small towns and villages along the meandering coastline, but the weather was so poor it wasn't worth stopping until we reached the fabulous Mussel Pot in the tiny seaside town of Havelock, where we sat in a lovely garden and munched our way through two huge pots of steamed green-lipped mussels. These New Zealand specimens are giants compared to our British mussels, and made for a fabulous meaty meal, dripping in a garlic wine sauce on the one hand and chilli and coriander on the other, all mopped up with a basket of bread.

We're in Nelson now – staying at the Palms Nelson motel – which appears to be a (relatively!) large and not particularly interesting city, although we don't have any time to explore its national parks, beaches or parks. Tomorrow morning we hand back the car and fly out to Taupo in the middle of North Island. We'll be spending a week in a lakeside cabin that probably does not have internet access, so until then adieu!