To Blenheim

HAL's tent extension was tested the first night, as it started to rain in earnest.  While the tent kept the rain out, it also got wet & soaked the ends of our blankets.  OK, hard rain = no tent extension.

We headed north toward Kaikoura (departure point for whale watching, etc.) and then Blenheim (center of New Zealand's Marlborough wine region, famous for Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir).  It rained - hard - all day long with no letup at all until the late afternoon.

HAL performed admirably on the very windy secondary road back out to the ocean.  We had some sobering reminders to take it easy, though.  Not only rock fall on the road and numerous rock-sweeper trucks, but on one curve a small campervan much like ours (one of the older, less-sound vans from a different company) had lost control and flipped on its side.  Everyone appeared to be OK, but what a way to ruin your vacation.  We continued north on the main coastal road, following the windy, rainy snake path to Kaikoura.

Kaikoura didn't hold much for us, since we weren't doing any wildlife tours and it continued to pour.  But I did have the best seafood chowder of my life for lunch, so that's something.

Before continuing, we dropped by the seal colony, which was home to several sea lions.

Just north of town, we dropped by Nin's Bin to check out the crayfish ("Pacific" lobster) on offer.  But the crays were a bit pricey, and my better half doesn't eat meat anyway, so we had to give them a miss.

Sarah pretends to enjoy the rainstorm.

When we got to Blenheim, the rain let up and we parked HAL in a holiday park, then went across the street to the Dodson Street pub for some beer tasters.  They are the home of Renaissance Brewing, whose beers are available all over NZ.

The beer was fairly tasty - we both settled on a seasonal Belgian pale ale as our favourite.

The rain even let up enough for us to sit in the extensive beer gardens... for about 5 minutes.

Took a swing by the rugby field on the walk back to camp.  For a smallish town, it was quite an extensive facility and a popular rugby club.  While they still like cricket here, rugby is their hockey.