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Published: November 21st 2022
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1. Dismal Greymouth Coast
We left Greymouth in the rain and it didn't stop til Blenheim! We woke up to grey skies and rain this morning, not surprising given we were woken up several times in the night by the heavy downpours! As this was such a lovely room with a nice full kitchen and Sky TV we treated ourselves to a cooked breakfast and watched the live final of the Grand Slam of Darts.
Our plan today was to head to Blenheim, via Punakaiki (the pancake rocks), Nelson and Picton, however the very lovely motel lady had told us when we checked in yesterday that the roads up in the north of the Island had been damaged by some recent storms and were closed! So we changed our plans to just head directly to Blenheim after Punakaiki. This meant about 4 and a half hours of driving, far less than yesterday!
The weather was awful today, constant rain, the only change was how heavy the rain was. Up to and including Punakaiki, it was a pleasant enough drive, we put our raincoats on and did the 30min walk to see the rocks which were impressive, unfortunately the blowhole wasn’t doing anything today though!
After Roy got his coffee fix, we set off on
2. Pancake Rocks
The small group of rocks know as the pancake rocks are amazing the cross country route to Blenheim which for the first time since we arrived here was a real struggle to drive. The weather made it a very draining, there wasn’t really any scenery to speak of. We passed a few places where the road was partially blocked by fallen rocks and also one part where half the tarmac had come away completely leaving just a single lane for both directions of traffic to use. Quite concerning given the heavy rain we were driving through, you weren’t 100% sure there wasn’t going to be another mini land slide!
There wasn’t really anything to stop at or look around, our route followed the Buller river at one point, which was slightly more interesting, but nothing like the scenery we were used to. We did pull into a parking area at the start of the ‘Old Ghost Road’ for our pre-prepared lunch, but it was still raining hard, so we didn’t get to leave the car to eat it!
The only excitement during the trip was Roy claiming to have seen a bird he thought was a Kiwi - although he also ran back for his camera at a viewpoint yesterday
3. How are they still there
We braved the rain to do the walk to the rocks, how some are still there is a wonder claiming to have seem a whale, which turned out to be a rock – so who knows what he saw!
Finally, after what seemed like the longest journey ever, we arrived in the Marlborough region, and the rain eased slightly to reveal field upon field of grape vines as far as the eye could see. The sun even came out for a while, and the grey clouds parted to give us a brief view of blue skies! The vines continued all along the road into Blenheim which was……… well, a little disappointing! It was a pretty standard looking town, and all the motels had no vacancy signs up.
This was the first night we hadn’t pre-booked a motel, and perhaps due to the fact that there seemed to be a lot of workers active in the vineyard fields, they were all fully booked!
We decided to continue further down towards Christchurch, which would reduce the journey tomorrow, but there was literally nothing for miles and miles! This is nothing like the rest of the South Island, leaving the built up area’s we’ve seen so far, there were usually motels to be found.
Thankfully, we drove through
4. Watch the Penguins
Don't see many of these at home! Ward, which is quite a small place, but they had a motel which had one room available so at least we have a home for the night. It’s a lovely little place, not a lot around here though, but we’d planned for a quiet night in and had some supplies for dinner, so it’s perfect for what we need.
Sods law, now that we’re settled in our room, the grey skies are gone and sun has come out!
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