Kaikōura where we have spent last night began as an isolated whaling location.
Whalers first came to New Zealand waters in 1792, initially to hunt sperm whales from their ships. Shore whaling began in the 1820s. Southern right whales were killed and their blubber rended down. The oil produced from that process was used to fuel lamps and as a lubricant. The first shore-based whaling station in Kaikoura was established by Robert Fyffe in 1842.
Fyffe House, the oldest building in Kaikoura, was literally built on the back of whaling – the initial single-storey cottage, which became the wing of a larger home, rests on piles made from the vertebrae of a Southern Right Whale. But the land that Kaikōura’s famously pink heritage building occupies, has a history that is centuries long, dating back to the initial arrival of the Māori.
After refuelling, we followed the coast north towards the town of Blenheim. The road runs to the east of the Seaward Kaikoura Range and literally along the shore.
Although very busy with traffic and transport vehicles travelling south from the inter-island ferry terminal at Picton, we found a number of scenic spots to stop and shoot the coastal scenery.
We could see many New Zealand Fur Seals on the rocks.
At Lake Grassmere, we found a large flat area with shallow ponds for evaporating salt from seawater.
A company called ‘ Dominion Salt’ was established in this location in 1942. During the Second World War years chemicals were in short supply, and included chemicals that used salt (Sodium Chloride). The Lake Grassmere site was chosen for its large areas of suitable flat land, high sunshine hours and the dry nor-westerly winds which perfectly suited the solar evaporation process for salt making. This industry has continued to harvest and manufacture salt at this site today.
Eventually, the road turned inland and we found ourselves in the spotte south of NZ’s famous Marlborough wine growing region.
The flavour and aroma that distinguishes Marlborough’s grapes is the result of a unique combination of soils, crisp nights and sunny days across the region’s vine-filled valleys. These produce wines that have intense flavours and aromas. The wine connoisseurs we’ll say that these have flavours of gooseberry and capsicum. The sauvignon blanc from here has been a real success for New Zealand. The region has been producing wines since early pioneers reportedly recognised something special in the land and planted the first vineyards in the 1880’s.
Jill very much likes the wines from this region and she wanted to see where one of her favourites came from. After researching the address, she hoped to find a nice winery with rows of vines on a hillside, but was disappointed to find that the location that she had researched was just an office in an area of Blenheim that processed wines on an industrial scale.
We did end up finding the location of their tasting rooms and cafe, so we drove there thinking that we might have a nice lunch. Like everything else at this time of year, it was booked out and we ended up settling for a cheese and onion sandwich from the local supermarket.
We didn’t intend to visit Picton where the ferry port is located but we ended up there after looking for a place to eat our sandwich.
This gave us the opportunity to travel around to our overnight stop at Nelson along the Queen Charlotte roadway. This narrow winding road gave us some good views of the Marlborough Sounds but didn’t have a straight stretch of road for the first 25 kilometres.
Before reaching Nelson, we finally drove through a stretch of very steep hills covered with pine plantations. Some of these were being harvested and we couldn’t believe how they could be harvested (and subsequent replanted) on slopes that looked to be 45 degrees or steeper.
We had our first accommodation mix up in Nelson because the type of room that I had booked was only available on the first floor of the motel. After consulting lots of options (including alternative accommodation, but they were all full), Dean and Tomiko, our very kind motel managers went out of their way to relocate some other guests that had just checked in to a better room on the first floor, located a trundle bed for us and set us up for a comfortable night in their accessible room. I don’t think hat I have ever experienced a better example of customer service than this. .
