14th December 2009
About three weeks ago, we booked another hire car for the rest of our time in New Zealand. We booked through a company we found on the internet and were a little unsure about whether it would actually come through as the emails and phone calls were a little relaxed, but I guess that’s just the laid-backness of the country because at 8.30 prompt this morning they picked us up as arranged. We had originally booked another Starlett, but they had given us a slightly bigger car at the same rate (just need to think of a name for this one now).
So by half past nine we were off on our way to Blenheim. Originally we were going to go to Kaikoura which is famous for whale watching but after reading trip advisor and the very mixed reveiws about the whale watching trip and speaking to Sarah and Hayden on the weekend we decided to move further on to Blenheim. We did stop in Kaikoura for lunch though, which reinforced our thoughts that beyond wildlife cruises, there is very little else here. We did manage to find a wonderful spot for lunch though.
We stopped further along the state highway at a place called The Store at Kekerengu for coffee and a delicious peice of carrot cake where we sat outside and enjoyed the lovely ocean views.
We arrived at our hostel just outside Blenheim late afternoon and were a little disappointed. Our initial impressions of the place were that it was dark and didn’t feel that friendly. Our room was tiny, only room for one of those bunk beds with a double on the bottom and single on top and so narrow that Ed couldn’t actually lay flat in the bed. Add to that the fact that it was next door to the bathroom with very thin walls and we were decidely unimpressed by the time it came to go to sleep. This is the first place we’ve really not liked though and most places have been excellent.
We had originally planned to do a cycling tour of some of the vineyards that this region is so famous for, but we didn’t want to spend another night at this hostel coupled with the fact that it was a self-guided tour and the regional specialty is white wine which we don’t really drink much of (and in Claire’s case is dangerous!) we decided to wait until Oz for our next wine tour.