Staying at Damfam Vineyard

Damfam Vineyard is just north of Blenheim, in an area called Spring Creek. They have a large paddock beside their vines where they allow self-contained NZMCA members to stay for $5 per person per night. There's heaps of room and it's situated alongside the Wairau River.

We parked up near the vines, close to the river, but the midges were out in numbers here, so we soon decided to move further along to the far end.

We stayed here a few nights while we explored the Blenheim area. This was one of the busiest nights with about half a dozen campers. You can see the vines at the far end. Damfam sell their grapes to Yealands Winery.

There were often rowers training on the river, especially in the evening.

We had a great view of the river from where we were parked. There is a bridge in the distance that we crossed over each time we went into Blenheim.

These are photos taken from that bridge, looking back up towards where we left the rig.

And a closer view . . .

It was a great place to stay—peaceful and friendly. Hosts Winston & Robyn tell us they use harrier hawks to keep the vines clear of birds, rather than have to cover the vines with netting/mesh as many vineyards do. They feed the hawks regularly to keep them in the area: Harry, Harriett and Junior, so I'm told! This where they feed them—on top of this platform near where we parked when we first arrived.

We saw "Harry" frequently while we were there. But I was never patient enough to try and get a photo of him feeding—maybe next time.

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Crossing Cook Strait

On the day we were due to cross Cook Strait, we left Plimmerton quite early—just before 6:30am. I’d thought this was possibly a bit of overkill for an approx. half-hour drive when we didn’t need to book in until 8am, but . . .  Dave was right. We arrived early (of course) and checked in straight away—not too much waiting (which is the one of the benefits of getting there early).

The girl checking us in told us we should have been stopped before we'd gotten as far as we had and directed us to where we were meant to be. Or she tried to.

We eventually found a helpful man in an orange high-viz vest that opened a gate to let us through so we were right at the front of a queue, ready to board.

Apparently, as we were a bit large, someone should have pulled us over before we’d gone down the lane following all the motorhomes . . .

Dave had met a lovely couple (Graeme and Maria) back at the Plimmerton NZMCA. They (and their dog Ruby) came over to chat with us as we waited for boarding to commence.

There were about 140 bikes to go on first. The annual Bert Munro Challenge—the largest motorcycle rally in the southern hemisphere—was being held in Invercargill later that week.

Before too long, it was our turn. One of the reasons we chose to go with the Interislander was because you could drive in one end and out the other—no turning around. This is possible with two of their ships: the Kaitaki and the Kaiarahi. We were on the Kaitaki. We’ve recently been told that travelling over on the Bluebridge is significantly cheaper so we will check that out the next time we cross over between the islands.

The crossing from Wellington to Picton takes 3.5 hours. This would be from 9:00am when we were due to sail. It was now 8:00am-ish and that would mean probably 4.5 hours before we got to return to our vehicles. We were I was a bit nervous about leaving Lucy alone for so long, but we didn’t have a lot of choice. I gave her a treat, with another one for her to find later on my seat, and headed upstairs. No doubt she demolished them both within the next five minutes.

Coffee and breakfast were calling. We found a table and, after our new friends joined us, Dave went off to order our breakfast. I’d hope to pop back down to check on Lucy before we sailed but they obviously lock the doors to the vehicle decks before 8:50am.

Before much longer we were moving, and I headed outside—where it was VERY windy—to take some photos.

Leaving Wellington.

That’s the North Island in the distance. And some of the vehicles on the deck below. We were parked under cover on a lower deck.

We’d been assured that a northerly wind is okay—it's the southerlies that cause choppy seas—and the wind was coming from the north today. Although it was extremely windy the entire crossing, the seas were calm. Many people braved the wind to enjoy the views. This is approaching the South Island.

In a short space of time we were entering the Marlborough Sounds.

 I believe this is a salmon farm.

 

Houses along the way where people live with up-close views of the Sounds.

Does it look like black goats on their front lawn?

There were plenty of others enjoying the Sounds.

Interesting artwork on the side of this boat.

Dave pointed out a seal, but by the time I managed to focus on it, it was just a black blob in the water. Then we saw dolphins! They're not as easy to photograph as I’d imagined. You find them in the viewfinder, zoom in, focus . . . and then they’re gone! This was all I managed to get. At least they’re recognisable!

We passed the other Interisland ferry, the Kaiarahi, heading for Wellington.

This is Waikawa Bay . . .

. . .  and as we rounded a corner, we could see our destination, Picton.

As soon as we were allowed, we went back down to the vehicle decks to greet Lucy. Both treats had been devoured, and although she was happy to see us, she wasn’t at all distressed. What a relief.

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Plimmerton

Plimmerton is about 25 mins from Wellington by car or half an hour by train. We stayed in this lovely seaside community at an NZMCA (NZ Motor Caravan Association) Park for about a week before we crossed over to the South Island. The park was huge, but being a popular stop before or after travelling by ferry, most nights it was quite full. The night before we left for the ferry, it was chokka! We ended up giving our space to someone just arriving and parked ourselves out in the middle in front of some campervans. We were leaving quite early (6:30am) but made sure we wouldn't be blocking anyone in.

Apart from that one night out in the middle, we were parked near the back fence away from the front gate. From here, we had a clear view of the railway track. We saw Kiwi Rail freight trains go past quite often . . .

. . . and then the Metlink passenger trains that were very frequent. They departed every half hour to go into Wellington, and so we decided that one day we would take a train into the city. We had planned to come back to Plimmerton on the train as well, but that was not to be. As mentioned in my previous post, something went wrong with the power, and trains were cancelled for a while.

Just a short distance from the NZMCA Park, we discovered this Doggy Daycare. Without this, we wouldn't have been able to spend the day in Wellington as we couldn't leave Lucy for that long on her own. Not only did they agree to have Lucy for the very next day, but they were also able to give her a full groom for us.

Right beside here we were staying was a park that was used for archery as well as other sports. We noticed people regularly exercising their dogs here, and we walked through this park to get to an underpass (under the train tracks).

In this next photo, the far end is where we entered the underpass from the park side. To get to the train station, you go up the ramp off to the side, and if you continue straight though and out this other side, you end up right in town! So handy. It only took us about 10 minutes to walk into town.

There were some great murals in the underpass—this was one of our favourites.

If you ever come to Plimmerton, there's a nice fish 'n' chips shop (the one just around the corner) and the pizza on the corner is fabulous. It can take a long time for them to make your pizza though, so perhaps consider ordering ahead by phone. Walking on past the shops, you come to the waterfront.

There's not a lot of sand on this beach—it's mostly rocks, but still people manage to enjoy themselves.

There are some places you can get down and walk along the shore . . .

. . . but it was easier to walk along the lovely wide footpath.

This was one of the few sandy spots.

There wasn't a lot of space between the high bank to our left and the road (with the sea on our far right). Houses are built right up against the bank and in some cases part way up the bank as well (see the first photo in this post). In the photo below, you can see behind the house some of the work that's necessary to stabilise the bank. No room for a back yard here, but the views and having the sea just across the road out front would be wonderful.

One day we went for a drive and found a high point that gave us some fabulous views looking south along the coast.

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