BIRTHDAYS GALORE - BLENHEIM BOUND

TUESDAY 24th MAY

Well we've got two birthdays today, Rambo Richens reaches the age of 70, and James 6 (alias Ben 10) also has a birthday - wowee!!!  Hope you both have a great day.

  Got up at 8.00am had a shower and a cup of coffee and hit the road for Westport.  Enroute I stopped at Punakaiki to inspec the Pancake Rocks and the rest of the imposing headland. I met an Asian holidaying couple who wanted to know what I thought of New Zealand and if I had seen any whales.  They shared my enthusiasm for NZ and reluctantly concluded they had come at the wrong time for whales!

 These are the pancake rocks and at high tide the water spouts up through the airholes.  Unfortunately I was there six hours too early, so I bought a postcard!  When I arrived a helicopter was dropping in pieces of a new footbridge, so access was closed to this area.  I went for a coffee and a cake and by the time I was finished they had re-opened the route.

 

  The weather was variable, starting out with rain, then a bit of sun, then more rain, the n cloudy and finally in Blenheim it was sunny again.  I got there about 4.00pm after a long old drive, having followed the Buller River all the way from Westport.  Like its namesake in Eire it has mountains, the sea but far fewer pubs.  I took a very quick stop but soon carried on.

  The drive through the mountains was very picturesque and at times a bit dodgy but nowhere near as bad as yesterday's.

  The final run into Blenheim was through the Waitaku Valley and all that could be seen as far as the eyes could behold was vast plantations of vines.  No wonder this is one of the main winery areas of New Zealand.