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We woke to bright sunshine and with the Seaward Kaikoura Mountain Range completely cloud free and looked forward to the Ocean Road trip - Highway 1 - up through Blenheim and Nelson, up past the Abel Tasman Park, on through Nelson on the Treasured Pathway aka Highway 6 and on to Golden Bay, our 'beach resort' for the next couple of days. Very quickly however the cloud rolled in followed by rain and this followed our tail all the way up to Picton when the sky became cloud free and blue as blue.
We were struck by the number of Wineries en route (over 100 Cellar doors the Tourism Radio told us), in the Blenheim and Marlborough areas acre upon acre of green vines amidst dry brown hills and valleys. The fire risk remains 'high'. We saw many deer, sheep and cows and noticed the water sprinklers watering the pasture for the animals.
Some of the many labels we saw, and some we recognised: Mount Riley, Blenheim, Riverlands, Marlborough, Ravensdown, Witherhills, Yealands, Wairu River, Raupo, Oyster Bay, Hunters, Squires, Stoneleigh, Thornbury, this list could go on and on!
Reminiscent of Guernsey - there was lots of produce for sale at the roadside, although here in NZ it is mostly fruit - and the array is a real treat: plums, apricots, blueberries, boysenberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries and kiwi fruit, YUM!
We stopped for coffee at Annie's and bought 'Fruit Leathers', drove past interestingly named PukaPuka creek and I (Shirley) kept an eye on Dave to make sure that, as the road signs demanded, he 'Stayed in Mantrol' and remembered that '100 - it's not a target drive to the conditions' (not sure our van would do a 100 anyway lol).
We arrived in Golden Bay after pausing briefly in quaint hippy-ish little Takaka for some 'emergency rashers'. The site - whilst quite big - wasn't full and we were given a perfect spot right next to the beach (28A) and had the sound and sight of the beautiful Golden Bay (Tasman Sea) to soothe and relax. Perfect!
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