New Zealand - South Island - Blenheim

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Hi, well we left Janet and Ian's house this morning after coffee and bacon sandwich, we had a great time hanging out with them. We headed to Blenheim which was next on the list, this is wine country! lovely, vineyards everywhere ! It was one of those funny days where we couldn't get it right. It was pouring with rain when we left Nelson, gloomy sky, not sure if it was a bit of Cyclone Pam, as that was supposed to hit a bit of the North Island, east Side, not where we were, but you never know !! Anyhow we arrived at our motel, took a couple of hours drive, motel very nice, cleared out the car because it was a right heap ! We have bags of washing, will have to do that boring old chore in a day or two !! We seem to have a larder in our car, tins of tomatoes, pasta sauce, hot sauce, tuna, noodles, rice and the list goes on !! So after reading up more about this place and the surrounding places, I said to Stu, we should have taken notice of that single lane bridge we passed over, Pelorus Bridge, way back, about 50 Km as, wait for it you 'Hobby Hobbit's' that was where they filmed the dwarfs escaping in the barrels, (I will put the first 4 photos up), so what do we do, we drive back 50 km to see this, took 35 minutes or so. We also went back to a restaurant in a place called Havelock which was on the way called 'The Mussel Pot' which was in my guide book which we initially passed on route the first time. This place only serves mussels in different sauces, they are huge and are in green shells. Well we got there and they were closed til late afternoon, so we decided to drive up the mountains and along the coast to Marlborough Sounds taking the Queen Charlotte and Kenepuru Road, which was very beautiful, lots of little bays, historic sites and stunning scenery. Back down the windy mountain, gravel road and to The Mussel Pot where we had the most gorgeous mussel's in garlic, they were huge. I also saw the cutest little police station in Havelock, love to work there, there was a note on the door saying 'closed, contact the constables if needed'. Isn't that where you would go if you wanted a constable ?? Confused !!

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Comments

[Denise]

Hi karol and stu. Glad your still enjoying your travels. What a lot of interesting places you come across. Hope you got to sample the wine!!!! The time is going so fast. Make sure you don't miss anything. Look forward to the next blog. Lots of love Xxxx