Day 34

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Our last night on the South Island. We are booked on the 9 am ferry tomorrow.



The drive from Greymouth to Blenheim was good. It was amazing you could feel the air change and the heat rise, then the vineyards started, mile after mile. Just before Blenheim we saw a sign, Clifford Bay 6 for $50! Was driving too fast to stop so we had to go back the next morning.



Got set up in the Holiday Park, went for a walk and checked out the area. I found a cheap dress, I swear I'm the only woman in the country in shorts. Tuesday we did the laundry and instead of using the dryer, we hung out clothes out on the line, everyone here does it. Was a bit windy so a little challenge but the sheets smelled wonderful. In the afternoon we drove south to see how far we could get before the road closure from the earthquake. We got just past Clarence, about 30 km short of Kaikoura. Good thing we went because today they had another earthquake, 5.1 centered just east of Seddon. We stopped in Seddon yesterday for tea.



Out for a drive last night we happened upon a farmer trimming the grape vines. It is so cool, the vines are always very flat looking and I assumed that was the way they grew, but no, the actually trim them with a machine. Basically a small tractor with two vertical hedge trimmers, drive down between the rows and the vines are trimmed. One we saw also had a horizontal top cutter so it trimmed the top as well.



Today Bob went to the tractor museum, I didn't go. I went for a wander instead and finally got a picture of a sign indicating a train crossing, looks like Thomas to me.



Just an observation, they name and have a sign for every bridge, creek and culvert, no matter how small. But they have so many one way bridges, I think if they stopped putting signs up they would save enough money to widen some of the bridges.

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Photos

Hills south of Blenheim
Blenheim

Clifford Bay vineyard
Clifford Bay

6 pack of wine
Clifford Bay