Marfells Beach

Looking down on the salt pans from the road that didn't go to the lighthouse

The beach at our doorstep

breakfast view from the bus doorway

Malcolm at Mussel Point

The lighthouse in the distance

 

Yesterday we moved to a DOC camp right on the waterfront at Marfells Beach near Lake Grassmere  solar salt works.  It was hard to move from the previous freedom spot but this beach was also very nice.  This morning the sea was rippling a few meters from our bus door and it was clear blue sky looking to the Marlborough Sounds and also the bottom of the North Island.  We walked for about an hour down the beach to Mussel Point from where we could see Cape Campbell lighthouse.  (We tried to drive there yesterday but the road becomes private before you get there). Then slowly back - with a chat to some blokes getting mussels off the rocks - then coffee and muffins...a real laid-back Saturday morning. We would have stayed another night but we didn't have any more change to put in the honesty box so reluctantly headed off around midday. 

We tried  Taylor Dam just outside Blenheim for our next overnight spot but we didn't like it there so just stopped for lunch and continued to a place called Koromiko not far south of Picton.  There was a freedom spot just off the road but it was basically just a car park and already full of campervans.  So we went 500 meters up the road to a motor-home POP - a large paddock with big trees.  POPs are properties that belong to other motor-homers, or I suppose anyone, and members of NZMCA can stay for a minimal fee.  Some of the pubs we've parked behind are POPs - they are happy for you to park free if you pop in and have a drink or a meal - and why wouldn't you.  This POP is owned by an old codger in a floppy hat who came by on his bike for a yarn this evening.