Picton - Kaikoura 26th November, 2020

        

Before we left Picton at 9.00am we drove up to the lookout to take the above photo looking down on the town and where the interislander ferries arrive and depart. Although still low cloud the rain had eased off..

Looking the other way up Queen Charlotte Sound.

We drove in a little further along Queen Charlotte Drive. Took this for the different colours of green.

Where the ships pick up the logs for export which is just around the corner. Looks a massive undertaking. 

Turned around heading back to Picton just in time to catch this ferry doing it’s full turn to back into port.

Now on our way to Blenheim back through the wineries 

Just five minutes south of Blenheim we arrived at the Amaka Aviation Hertitage Centre. Which is a Peter Jackson exhibition of WW1 and WW2 aeroplanes.  Excellent.

Etrich Taube. We were told that this plane is still airworthy and last flew in the year 2000. 

Airco De Hacilland DH2

Moraine - Saulnier Type BB French design.

Wall of member’s creek as above.

Breguet 14.AZ

Crash

The figures are so life like even with the sparkling eyes. Especially the one on the right!!!

Fokker Dr I ‘Dreidekker ‘ Triplanes

The Red Barron’s last flight.

Below now in WW2

Lovely story.  This airman had been shot down over Kent. He managed to parachute to safety but landed into grounds where folk were having a Cocktail party. Quite a way to make an entrance. The airman’s minor head wound was attended to by a female doctor who was one of the guests. Apparently she sent him a bill at a later date!!

Lockheed Hudson

As we left Blenheim we passed more wineries

Turned off to see where they produce salt. This is the salt piled up after the evaporation process.

Where they bring in sea water which is left to evaporate into salt.

Just after we passed this Quaint church. I missed out on a great photo with a field of cows sitting around  a big old fireplace which had been dumped in a field. I imagined the cows were waiting for the 🔥 to be lit.

This is our first sight of the coast after leaving Blenheim and at last we see clear skies and sun again.

More coastal pictures as we drive down the coast to Kaikoura.

A lot of stop - go lights down the Kaikoura coast

With all the roadworks going on since the earthquake.

We arrived at the Top Ten holiday park at about 2.30pm. This was taken standing in the van looking out towards the hills.

Zoomed in on the hills to see the snow on the top and the interesting cloud formation.

Nice site with good patch of grass to sit out on. Prime real estate a corner site.

This is the young German boy we meet up at Snells when he first came out to NZ in March to work on the motorway project up to Warkworth. We have kept in touch, giving him a few meals over the months.

We knew he was travelling around the South Island the same time as us but not knowing where he would be. As we were leaving Blenheim we got a text to say he his heading to Kaikoura then on to Christchurch where were we? It was such a coincidence that we were only about a hour or so behind him also heading for Kaikoura. The outcome is that he checked into the same camp as us and I cooked him dinner.  Very pleasant evening. He is travelling alone . He leaves NZ on the 29th December. We have both checked in for two nights. We may stay for three a good few days to unwind from all the travelling we have done.