The Top of the South

Wairau lagoons near Blenheim

Heading up to the Waverley wreck

boardwalk, lagoons

Lagoons

Tucked away freedom camping at Carluke

On the way to French Pass

Elaine Bay in the Sounds

 

sunny Sounds

 

Malcolm at the office, French Pass

 

We spent 2 nights at the Roadhouse restaurant truckstop - a really nice parking area beside a cafe with brand new modern toilets and showers.  A good place to get laundry done too.  This morning (Nov 5) we went for a 3 hour walk around the amazing Wairau lagoons.  We didn't see another soul but lots of birdlife, black swans, spoonbills, Canadian geese etc.  There is a wrecked boat, the Waverley, from 1880 which adds sculptural interest to the scene.  There have been archaeological excavations done on the boulder bank side of the lagoons, there were moa hunter camps there.  Blenheim library has free wifi so we were able to spend a couple of hours getting things done there, getting up to date with emails etc.  Malcolm found it was (maybe?) his computer's firewall stopping him from going online, another mystery solved?  He had installed some programmes for his CAD work and they all wanted to do updates - better to use the library's wifi than ours.  The weather has been great but it is supposed to be showery tomorrow.

Nov 6.  We are now parked at Carluke in the Rai Valley between Blenheim and Nelson.  This is a freedom camping spot at the reserve by the river.  We are tucked in halfway under some trees with wide views of the mountains around us.  We have been for a short bushwalk in the reserve and up the road to visit Rai Valley cottage built in the 1880's by the Turner family who lived there for 10 years before any other settlers arrived in the area.  Since the afternoon has turned grey we have both been busy working - Malcolm doing CAD for SMI and me writing articles.

Nov 7.   A rainy day spent cosy in the bus, reading, eating and working on our computers.

Nov 8.  Today we drove in the car to French Pass via Okiwi Bay and Elaine's Bay.  (Go Elaine!!!)  We had coffee at Elaine's Bay, chatting to some motor-homers and watching some guys get a snapper off the jetty.  At French Pass the water was churning but the pohutakawa had started to bloom by the picnic table where Malcolm set up his 'office' at the beach.