Sunday, 14th January 2018
What a great surprise we had this morning! As soon as I opened the curtains and door onto our balcony, I was greeted with beautiful sunlight and blue skies with some wafts of white clouds…….. The yacht marina immediately looked completely different and there were people around getting ready to take their boats out! Today we were due to leave Nelson and continue our trip to Blenheim so that tomorrow we can catch the ferry from Picton to Wellington. What a great way to end our trip on the South island – sunshine and warm temperatures rising to 27 degrees. This morning we did not take any sunny side up eggs – we had the real thing outside and were eager to go out and enjoy it all!
After breakfast we loaded our bags into the car and set off. It was 10 am and well within our schedule. I was the co driver today so I had enough time to plan our stops. The distance between Nelson and Blenheim is only 115 km and if we had driven straight through it would only take some 1.5hrs. However we had quite a few sightseeing stops and we only arrived in Blenheim round about 15.00
Leaving Nelson on the State Highway 6, our first stop was at the Founders Heritage Park, which we had missed yesterday due to the bad weather. But this morning, we had the perfect weather and there were loads of families with their kids all heading towards this park. It was only when we were inside that park that we knew why it was so busy – there was an old timers exhibition which also included a cargo plane from the 1950’s We were drawn initially by the windmill but all the old buildings were actually moved to this park from various areas around Nelson and whether the building was a house, shop or fire station, everything was well kept.
After spending about an hour here, we were again on our way and our next stop was at Pelorus Bridge. A pretty little green forest tucked away and running down to the River Pelorus. This forest had remained because a town planned here ( that’s why the bridge was built in 1865) never materialized and now it’s a great site for picnics, swimming in the river and now also known in the neighbourhood for being chosen by Peter Jackson as a site for his film the Hobbit.
On the road again – but not for long as we soon hit our next point of interest – Havelock! This is a pretty little town where mussels – especially the green shelled mussels are farmed. This town has proclaimed itself as “the Green shell Mussel Capital of the World”, thus enough places to try out this type of mussel!! We ended up at the Mussel Pot on the high street and choose 2 delicious ways of steaming the mussels – Gerry had them with a white wine and cream sauce and I had mine with garlic, herbs and tomato sauce. Of course we exchanged some of each others mussels and both were exquisite!! We also took a walk down to the harbour and besides mussel trawlers, there were quite a number of yachts berthed here – apparently the mussel farmers must be doing extremely well!!
Our final destination was approaching but also the vineyards of the Marlborough region. Marlborough is New Zealand’s largest grape growing and wine making region with 65 wineries, 290 grape growers and 4,054 hectares in grape production. Nearly all of the wineries welcome visitors for tasting sessions and many have a cafe or restaurant on site. Sauvignon Blanc is the region’s specialty, but wines made with Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are also highly acclaimed. As we’re driving, we did not stop to do any wine tasting.
Finally at our destination – we found our cottage – The Vine Cottage –a very quiet place outside the town of Blenheim. Our host, Iain preserves his own peaches, plums, nectarines and cherries – looking forward to tomorrow’s breakfast as he will have these fruits served.
When we were settled in, we decided to go on a drive to Picton – just to check out where we have to take the ferry tomorrow. A very pleasant drive and within half an hour we were at Picton Harbour, a very pretty place and also having a museum (which was closed) specifically dedicated to The Edwin Fox, the oldest merchant ship and the oldest surviving ship that brought immigrants to New Zealand.
We had a short stroll along the beach and later on after driving round to the next cove we came back to one of the café’s for ice cream! By that time it was close to 7.30 pm and we finally made our way back to our cottage.
This was such a lovely day and we were so thankful that we were finally blessed with great weather!. Looking forward to tomorrow and our start of our trip to the North island!
