Rarangi and Blenheim

Thursday 15th November 2018

Blenheim's not that far from Havelock and it's so picturesque driving into it through the wide valley with it's vast vineyards  and fragrant roses, planted at the ends of the rows, wafting their scent in through the bus windows. Framed from the south by dry brown hills and to the north by hills covered with green trees the contrast completes the picture of this stony but grape loving valley. Rather than stop in Blenheim, apart from to buy some delicious cherries from the cherry farm and go to Paknsave, we headed straight on out to the Golf Course at Rarangi Beach. On our last tour of the South Island in Debussy, 6 years ago, we had visited the beach here and done a little walk but didn't stay overnight because of the howling wind.
The wind blew us around all night but still not enough to blow us over!

Can you see where that one went?

Well, the wind was still there but we enjoyed a game of golf on the flat links course and had a shower in the clubhouse before crossing the road to walk through the dunes to the beach and down to the far end of the beach, past the DOC camp there.

We decided not to do the hour walk to Whites Bay as we had walked enough already with the golf and we had done the short walk to Monkey Bay on our last trip. Returning to the golf club we stayed their the night which we are allowed to do for no extra charge if you play golf.

The next day we passed through Blenheim again to play golf at the Marlborough Golf Course which looked a very scenic course when we googled it. And it was! Set amongst yet more vineyards and surrounding a long hill with lovely homes overlooking these fields of grapes as well as the golf course it was a lovely course to play. We tried not to let ourselves be phased by the numerous water hazards of ponds and streams and I'm not going to talk about all the shortfalls of my golf at present as it's just good to be out there doing it and Len at least is doing fine! But we did enjoy the course and all it's challenges - so much so that we got up early to play again on Saturday morning before the regulars started their Saturday competition. We had stayed the night on site so that helped give us a head start. After another shower in the clubhouse (always a little more luxurious than our quick bus showers) we finally got to have a walk around Blenheim town itself before settling down for the evening at the Racecourse (which backs on to the 9 hole Blenheim Golf Course) where NZMCA members can stay for $10 a night. Toilets are available there as well as 2 washing machines for $4 a load. Just wish they had rubbish bins to use!

So Sunday was washing day and it was still very windy so no problem to dry. In the morning we had a walk through the relaxing Pollard Park which is very close by as we had already arranged to play golf at the Blenheim course next door around 4.00pm when they expected their 27 hole tournament to be finished.
So tackle the wind again we did on the flat fairly narrow fairways flanked by trees and with some crossing over of fairways to be done - all very well signed though. By the time we had played the first 9 we knew our way around though as most of the tees were in the same place for the 2nd 9. Some cheering for me here as my 2nd 9 was 8 shots better than my first. Some improvement at last!

We stayed a second night at the Racecourse getting back in time to see the Morrison family from Marton on Country Calendar.

The next day we had a few things to do in town where I found a cafe making whitebait fritter sandwiches for lunch so that was a treat for me before we pointed the bus in the direction of St Arnaud's and the Nelson Lakes.