Port Underwood

Koromiko paddock - afternoon relaxing spot

The road went over the hills and down to the bays...

Robin Hoods Bay

Ocean bay

Queen Charlotte Sound

A guy takes off...

...and does some acrobatics

Today we had a Sunday drive along the Port Underwood road which is very windy and unsealed with bad corrugations.  It twists its way from Rarangi, east of Blenheim, to Waikawa just east of Picton - alongside the Port Underwood Harbour.  The coastline was used by early whalers and there are remains of Jacky Guard's whaling station but it is all behind wire fences marked private.  There was a graveyard, a try-pot and a cannon.  Betty Guard was the first white woman to live on the S Island.  There were some pretty bays, very isolated, ours were the only footprints on one we walked along.  At Robin Hoods Bay (not at all like the one in Yorkshire!) there were a few intrepid surfers.  Otherwise just a long and winding road until we hit the seal again at the Marlborough Sounds.  We watched a para-gliding  guy waiting for a puff of wind to send him airborne - and finally take off and swoop around.  The afternoon was perfect for sitting outside the bus reading the latest Lee Child, finally purchased at 2nd hand prices from a 2nd hand bookshop in Picton.  The last day of our South Island summer I think.