On to Blenheim
Our trip for the final full day on the South Island was only short, about an Hour and a half drive from Nelson to Renwick and Blenheim in the Marlborough wine district in the North East of the South Island, so we took the advantage of this to explore some of the things in Nelson that we did not have time to see before they closed the day we arrived. The main one we wanted to see was the “Founders Heritage Park,” which is a replica historic village containing many of the old historic buildings and artefacts of Nelson.
We stayed here till after our normal morning coffee, before heading to Renwick and Blenheim, to taste some of New Zealand wines from that area.
The farming in this part of New Zealand is not the grazing of sheep or deer, but a much slower return from the efforts of the farmer, the crop here is Pine trees for export as timber, but this crop takes years from the time of planting to the time it is ready to harvest. (Tomorrow we will see how it is exported)
It is only on the lower slopes of the mountains near Blenheim that there are any vineyards. It is here we hope to try the local wine!
Our first stop when we reach Blenheim was the park, so we could make some sandwiches for lunch. Since our stay in Murchison we had started to have some bread, a cutting board, a knife and cheese, ham and butter with us to make lunch where ever we were at lunch time.
The park we stopped at was also near the local tourist information centre, where we could obtain a map of showing all the local vineyards, especially those that allowed people to taste their wines in their cellars. Most of the more interesting ones were around Renwick, so we headed that way, to also look for a motel for the night, which we found in Renwick not far from the vineyards Carolann and my mother wanted to visit (as I was the only male, I seemed to always be out numbered!).
We visited a number of vineyards, but it seemed that while their White Wines were very notable and good, their Red Wines were not up to the standard I liked, so we did not buy much wine, only enough to have with dinner that night.
The motel did not have a good restaurant for an evening meal, but there were many small “take away” cafés nearby, so when we went for our evening walk we purchased a selection of different foods for our dinner so that we could have a small feast for our last evening meal on the South Island of New Zealand
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