We started our day with a flat tire - the first piece of genuine annoyance we have had. Eric changed it to the 'donut' spare with the 80 km. speed limit. We tried to get the tire repaired in Kaikoura, but being Sunday, no one was working. So we decided to deal with it in Blenheim, where we would be there two days.
We headed to the peninsula at Kaikora to walk the top of the cliff (brave Eric again). We saw a pied shag at the base of the cliff. There is a seal colony at the base of the cliff - you don't get close, but you can see a lot of them lying on the rocks. The views are very good. The info. board asked us to note some terracing on one of the mounds, an indication of Maori workings.
After the walk, we stopped at a roadside "Seafood BBQ" that was recommended by Lonely Planet - like a chips truck without the chips. We had a crayfish fritter (read lobster), a paua fritter (read abalone), and some of the local scallops. The fritters were good, but the scallops were delicious. They have a 'tube' attached to the part we in Toronto know as the scallop, and the whole thing is yummy. By the way, BBQ appears to refer to a flat steel grill, not the grid over coals that we think of. We might have tried the crayfish, but it was pre-steamed and jsut heated up, and quite expensive ($45 NZ to $65, depending on size). BTW, Kaikoura means crayfish in part - its a shortened version of "the place where [Maori legend] cooked a crayfish over a fire" - apparently while he was hunting for his 3 wives who had left him.
On the road to Blenheim, we stopped for coffee (daily habit, the flat white) at a lovely beachside place called "The Store" (proper name to be inserted when I have my notes at hand). Nicely landscaped, sheltered sunny deck with tables. The gulls lacked manners, but what do you expect. Five seconds after someone left a table, they were all over it, seizing any carbohydrate leftover they could find. We took our tray back indoors!
Further along, we turned off the road to see a salt factory - salt ponds were they allow the sun to evaporate the water from the salt. And such salt! Piles of it! I was surprised it was outside, exposed to the weather, given that they had just got it out of the water. No tours sadly, but interesting nevertheless.
So our slow ride and our GPS got us safely into Blenheim, to The Grapevine, 29 Park Terrace. Very nice! We visited the New World supermarket - a very impressive store - and got ingredients for our seafood pasta supper. More wine! And one of the guests shared some local strawberries with us that tasted like real strawberries. Apparently they have fall berries here.
After dinner we walked along the river bank (did I mention the deck at the back of the place that overlooks the river?) to the town centre, and had a little sunset walk about there. They had a worker vacuuming the streets with a Stiehl gizmo that looked like a leaf blower! Not much tolerance for litter here.
Now, tomorrow - wine tour, aviation museum - we will see!
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