World New Zealand Blenheim

Carol & Gary's NZ adventure

Week 33 – Week ending 22 February 2009 – South Island, New Zealand Feb 22, 2009

We awoke on Monday morning after a great night’s sleep. We are well and truly back into a good sleep routine and we are waking up much later than usual. After breakfast I gave the van a good clean out and Gary washed and cleaned out the Cruiser. I noticed today for the first time that the leaves on the poplar trees are starting to change colour so summer is coming to an end and autumn will be here soon. We went up to the Post Office and thankfully our part for the van had arrived from Mackay. We grabbed a bit of lunch up town and wandered around with the dogs. We walked up and had a look at the very old Anglican Church it was beautiful. Nelson city area is so pretty with all the flowers. One of our 9kg gas cylinders ran out today and we got that filled. We first got them filled on the way to Moreaki back in September and we use them every day so they have lasted well. Later on we came back to the van and watched some TV and had a rest. We went over to visit Peer and have tea with him as it is his 28th Birthday today. We spent a bit of time at the hostel and went up town for some take aways. We left him to it as he had to phone all his family in Germany. The wind has come up terribly by the time we get home and it is freezing cold. We quickly took the awning down and put the table and chairs away. We hop into bed and even with the heater on we take a while to warm up again. There really is something about this van park being in this valley. It is cold.

We were awoken during the night to one of the water filling doors banging against the van. It took ages to get back to sleep, but we do and we awake to a calm, fine Tuesday morning. We drive up to Motueka to enquire about some Seasonal work. It is good to get back here again as I forgot to take some photos of all the fully laden apple trees when we were here on Saturday. There isn’t any work going yet, which is a bit disappointing as we were expecting to walk into some fruit picking work. The lady at employment office gave us her friend’s phone number as they might have been looking for staff to pick hops. We rang but they already have a full allotment of staff. It is a shame as the hop season is for a month and that would have been perfect for us. At least we know what direction we are heading in now. Gary had a quick fish again and we headed back to Nelson. We met up with Wayne (who we met on our flight back from Australia). Wayne has some business to do in Nelson and has driven up from Reefton. We met up and had lunch together and spent a while chatting. He’s a funny guy and we look forward to meeting his missus sometime. We said our goodbyes and we may catch up again in the North Island. Gary went and bought a fly fishing rod. He has wanted to get one for some time and after much “window shopping” he bought one from a “proper” fishing store. The advantage of doing this was all the one on one tuition and advice he got from the fly fishing “expert”. By now it is late afternoon so we get some grocery shopping done and head home. We are pushing on tomorrow to a small town and hopefully a couple of other places that don’t have shops nearby so we are fully stocked with food and fuel. Gary got talking to another guy in the camp ground who has a 30ft Jayco like ours and it turns out he remembers us from the camp ground at Gore. Well he doesn’t actually remember us, he remembers Logan and Poppy! The best news we heard all day was that Mike and Jodie our friends from Mackay have won a brand new Mitsubishi VRX Sportback car. They entered the Daily Mercury/Carlisle Motors competition and were so lucky for their name to be drawn out. How lucky are they!

On Wednesday I am woken by Gary moving about the van, I can tell it is early as the sun isn’t up and then Logan jumped up on the bed with me. I went back to sleep until 7.45 and got up to find a note from Gary saying he had gone fishing. I waited for as long as I could for Gary to come back and make breakfast before deciding I will have to get it myself! Around 9.40am Gary came back empty handed but with plenty of fly fishing stories. It is a whole new learning curve with the fly fishing rod and it seems to take a bit more technique than just putting some bait on a hook and plonking it in the water. We get about packing up the van as we are pushing off. It is such a nice day on the road and before we know it we are in Havelock. We parked the van and walked Logan and Poppy around the marina area. We were going to stay here but decided against it. Havelock is near the Pelorus River and in one of the Marlborough Sounds but as we were walking around we noticed stacks of No fishing, no dogs, no this no that signs and the place is so tiny we decided to keep on going and get to Blenheim. Once we arrive in the Wairau area all the vineyards start appearing. It is such beautiful country side and there are vineyards everywhere. It always amazes us how much effort is put into the design and style of vineyard homes and the wine tasting, shop buildings. We have been through the Hunter Valley and the Yarra Valley and they are all similar and just lovely. We arrive at the Spring Creek Holiday Park which is about 6km from the town and are directed to a nice grassy site. It is $26/night which is ok. We have noticed since we have been in the north of the South Island that you have to pay to use the showers in the holiday parks, I don’t know if it is just money making or if they are trying to restrict water use. There are quite a few permanent residents here and a lot of other nationalities who are staying in vans or bunk rooms. These people must be working in the vineyards. We drove into town to go to the employment office but find it is closed until Thursday morning. We like Blenheim and the town has all the “major” shops that you need. The town has a nice feel to it and like Nelson it is very busy. We drove around and Gary found some fishing spots and stops for a fish here and there. I got some washing done and dried and while brining it in a guy came over for a chat. He had spotted the Jayco and had a heap of questions as he is thinking of buying one. We had our tea and wondered over to Spring Creek which runs behind the park and I rang my sister while Gary had a fly fish. He spotted a few big trout feeding in the creek. Gary is having the worst run of luck ever fishing. We were getting ready for bed when our mobile rang. It was a guy ringing from Motueka and offering us work harvesting hops. Cool! The harvest starts on 25 February and runs for one month and it looks like we can live in the van on his property as well. We will drive back on Monday and get ourselves organized. Luckily he was talking to the people we rang yesterday and they passed on our phone number. This is great news as the money will help out and we will finish the harvest then leave for the North Island. Plus there are a few areas around Motueka that we would really like to see and the big bonus for Gary is all the fishing areas around Motueka. The funny thing is we don’t know what a hop looks like or what is involved in the harvest but it is only for a month and it is another experience we haven’t had before.

We wake on Thursday to a lovely day and a pretty good nights sleep. Gary heads off for a fish and finds another mate in the carpenter that is working on site in the van park. It never ceases to amaze me how easily he can talk to complete strangers. Anyway, after waiting patiently while he fished, then talked and talked some more we went up town. Gary and I went to the Warehouse to get some gear and then Gary dropped me off in town and I had a good few hours to myself. It was lovely, I just wandered around and looked at the shops and bought a couple of things I needed and booked in for an eyebrow wax later in the afternoon. I also went to the Information Centre which are a great source of local info and I grabbed some pamphlets on the Motueka area. Gary spent some time fishing and hanging out with the dogs while I was out. We ended up driving around looking at the vineyards, out to Renwick and drove back through more vineyards and took some photos of the beautiful cellar door properties. By now it is late afternoon and I head back to get our dinner organized. Gary is keen for a fish so he is heading out for a fish after tea. I stayed behind and climbed into bed. There is a severe weather forecast for heavy rain to start during the night and continue through Friday.

I am woken sometime during the early hours to heavy rain and Friday morning is just hideous. Once we get up and moving around we can see how much rain has fallen and it is just hammering down. We were going to go to Queen Charlotte Sound today but we have decided to give that a miss and stay indoors. The rain just hammers down so we spend the time with Gary playing Xbox and I took the opportunity to get all my photos organized and burned off for back ups. Around lunch time the rain eases so Gary takes off fishing and I spend the afternoon watching my TV programmes. Gary once again came back empty handed. After tea we got invited to catch up with Kerri and Jason at Kerri’s parents place. We met Mike and Sandy and spent the evening with them and Kerri and Jason enjoying some fine glasses of Oyster Bay wine, apple pie dessert and very interesting conversation. Before we knew it it was midnight and we thought we’d better get going. We really enjoyed ourselves.

On Saturday morning Gary was up and away early and I slept on. Eventually Gary returned to tell me he had caught a huge Brown trout and then he told me he felt sorry for it and released it back into the creek. Go figure. The man spends hours, days trying to catch fish, then catches one and puts it back! We got ready and left for our drive to Picton and The Sounds. We are at Picton before we know it and drove around looking at the town. We then went in to the Blue Bridge Interisland ferry office to enquire on price and procedure for our trip across Cook Straight in about a month’s time. That was sorted and we drove on Queen Charlotte Drive that runs between Picton and Havelock and overlooks Queen Charlotte Sound. The sound is very beautiful and looks similar to the Mandalay area around Airlie Beach. We drove onto Linkwater and turned to drive into the Kenepuru Road up to the Kenepuru Sound. This area is nice but not quite as scenic as the Queen Charlotte Sound. We could have driven for about 80kms if we wanted to, but we only went about 20kms in before turning into Double Bay for a wander around. We drove onto Havelock and stopped at the Bakery for lunch and had some yummy pies. We drove back and had a bit of a rest before Gary took Logan and Poppy out to the mouth of the river for a fish. He returned with a small Kowhai. While he was fishing his mate from the holiday park turned up so they spent the afternoon together.

On Sunday we wake after sleeping the sleep of the dead. It is 8.30am before we wake up and we figure we must have slept for about 10 + hours. We must have needed it. The dogs are hanging to go out to the toilet. We left Logan and Poppy behind and went to the Blenheim Farmers Market at the Showgrounds. What a great market all the fresh local produce was amazing. We bought some Elephant Plums, Red Delicious apples and marinated mussels for next to nothing. We really enjoyed it and it was good to see the huge patronage of people there. Gary wandered off and found the spot that he had camped in a tent here with Dave and Julie. He reckons he was about 11 or 12 years old when they had a night here, so that is nearly 30 years ago now! We drove out of town and looked at the incredibly dry hills and funnily enough we came across a vineyard called “Dry Hills”. For lunch Gary smoked the Kowhai and we had some Garlic Butter mussels with it, the Kowhai was delicious. We really do prefer ocean fish to freshwater fish. We all went fishing down at the mouth of the river and straight up I got a bite, great we thought, I pulled in an eel (yuck). Gaz had to unhook that one and let it go. My next cast also got a good bite so I reefed the line up and hooked something, I pulled it in again to find another eel (double yuck), this one however had swallowed the hook so Gary decided to forgo a hook and just cut the line. This was much excitement for the dogs. The kids fishing down the river also caught an eel. Gary cast out and hooked something and he dragged in a Kowhai. It was a decent size so we decided to keep it. The rest of the afternoon was frustrating as we kept getting caught in massive amounts of weed. It was so hard to reel the line in as the weed was so heavy. While we were down at the mouth I watched a guy kite surfing he was getting some serious air. I took a heap of photos that turned out ok considering I had the 40x zoom on the wind was blowing a gale. We returned home after a great afternoon. We really enjoyed Blenheim and our five days here it has gone by very quickly.