Today started with Bert following the Wales v England rugby match online - until we had to set off to find the chocolate factory. Fortunately both Matt and Steve kept him up to date with the score by text and obviously he was delighted when, as he put it, the best team won!
Well, the chocolate factory was where it was supposed to be! How we had missed it neither of us could understand, as it is quite an unusual building.
We had a very pleasant half an hour or so sampling the wares and finding out about the history of the company and their methodology. Bert enjoyed it so much that he asked if they had a vacancy for a taster. Needless to say the answer was 'No' – we think it was because they could see that their profits would go down rapidly!
After pouring yet more diesel into the bus, we headed down SH1, the coast road towards Kaikoura. At first we were still in the wine growing area of Marlborough, a wide sheltered plain with mountains protecting the rows of vines but the landscape soon became more rugged. We made various stops on the way; the first at a salt works where man-made lagoons are flooded and then the water allowed to evaporate (reminded us a little of the salt harvesting on The Vendee but this was on a massive scale).
At some point in the process the lagoons turn pink but as the public were not allowed in and there was no information, we shall have to research why this happens. The next stop was at Kekerengu, a tiny place with just a cafe where we stopped to have lunch.
The rest of the stops were for “Wow, look at that!” moments and we are attaching a number of photos to show you just what we mean.
One of these moments was when Bert spotted a seal on one of the rocks close inshore. We stopped to see it and found several more basking on rocks by the side of the road. Quite wonderful, although it is difficult to pick them out against the rocks because of their colouring.
We arrived in Kaikoura in the early afternoon and found our campsite; much nicer and smaller than the one at Blenheim. First stop was next door to a bakery to buy some cakes to have with our cup of tea. We were served by a young lady from Wolverhampton! She even knew where Market Drayton is and there are not many people in New Zealand who know that! She is working here for six months and then plans to go off to Australia, followed by South America. Great to meet some young people with such get up and go. (I'm beginning to feel that this blog contains far more information about food than most of you need to know. Obviously the GF thing is a huge relief for me and it has been a delight searching out little places to try unusual things but we will try to exercise some restraint in detailing our every meal from now on.)
We then took a long walk into Kaikaura, along the seafront and into the town itself. It is not very large but the transient/tourist population is quite significant. The views out to sea are literally breathtaking, as the mountains drop right down to the shore. The beach is made up of the same grey pebbles we found at Napier. There was a huge bank of low cloud/sea mist across the lower parts of the mountains, giving the whole bay area an unearthly feel as we walked.
On our way back, we met a lady from Holland, who is touring NZ and Australia by herself in the tiniest campervan we have ever seen! She was very happy to chat about how much she was enjoying her trip and how she never felt alone because every day people like ourselves just struck up a conversation with her. Great to think that this is going on, even if it doesn't seem to happen much in the UK. We continue to be amazed by the command of English that Dutch people have. We have met many of them on our caravanning trips and they really put us to shame linguistically.
Tomorrow is Waitangi Day (celebrating the signing of the Treaty in 1840) and a lot of the shops are closed. We have booked ourselves in for a meal tomorrow night at the local organic restaurant in Kaikaura, which will charge us an additional 15% for the privilege of eating out on Waitangi Day – we understand all other establishments also make the additional charge. We will try and find out what happens to the extra money tomorrow and let you know.
We also have something special planned for tomorrow. Wait and see.
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