Tues 2 Feb - Back to Picton

After reluctantly leaving Akarua we drove over the peninsular and down to Lyttleton, a prettily located port, but quite industrial. It was then through a tunnel and on to Christchurch where we had a quick drive around the central area and through Hagley Park. We were not terribly impressed, just a large American-like chequer board downtown area with a pleasant central square and large park, but very flat – quite different to Wellington.
As we left the suburbs we drove through gently undulating and softly scenic countryside including the Waipara Valley, famous for its vineyards and eventually re-joined the coast but the day had started, and remained, overcast, so the sea looked less appealing. The only major town we passed through was Kaikoura where we should have stopped in order to do some whale watching but still had a few miles to go so pressed on to Blenheim, arriving late afternoon.
This little town which is the centre of the largest wine growing area in New Zealand (home to Montana, amongst others) looked promising, and we would have stayed the night here but as we could only get a booking on a very early morning ferry we continued on to Picton. Here we found a cabin in a small holiday park about 200 yards from the entrance to the ferry terminal and after a meal in the town settled down for our 5.00 am start the next morning.
It is worthy of note that today we actually passed a quilt shop and did not stop! No, Christine was not asleep.