Today started with another sleep in and some confusion over the start of daylight saving in New Zealand. When we did finally get going, it was a spectacularly shambolic start. First stop was the Blenheim Sunday market. An absence of stalls taking cards meant our short stay was followed by a trip to the ATM. Cashed up, our first winery was... closed. As was our second. A stop at a crowded "food festival", actually turned out to be a mini duathlon. Finally we made our way to Cloudy Bay winery. Open. Hurrah.
Cloudy Bay was a great location. We sat down to taste in a nice outside courtyard. Sam enjoyed sniffing each glass, obviously it didn't spoil the taste of his ice cream.
This was the day we would arrive at Macchu Picchu so we awoke with a keen sense of anticipation. To celebrate the last day on the trail, somehow the chef had whipped up an enormous cake which was served after breakfast. After a discussion with Marco about the likely weather over the next two days we agreed that it would be best to tour Macchu Picchu as soon as we arrived in mid afternoon rather than wait until tomorrow. Marco assured us that this would mean less crowds and better weather (he was right). We could see the backside of the mountain above Macchu Picchu in front of us as we started out. Unlike the last two days, today was mainly downhill. We would have to descend about 1,000 meters and judging by the first part of the morning walk, most of this would be on steep and slippery rocky steps. After alternating descents and traversing along steep hillsides through cloud forest and bamboo groves we reached the ruins of Intipata. Intipata was a very...
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