From East to West

As indicated in my previous blog we did indeed get to Wither Farm where we loved a steep but gradual climb to wonderful views out to the sea. Whither Farm is a network of tracks that cater for walkers of all abilities as well as cyclists of all abilities. It's a wonderful asset for Blenheim that's well maintained and patronized.
Next day we were pleased to 'do' the Blenheim River paths which we tried to cycle a few weeks ago but most of them were flooded. Was great to see them dry and cleaned up.
We moved to Waikawa Bay to spend time with family and watch the AB's play South Africa. It was a great match accompanied by lots of commentary from all the 'experts' in the room! Lots of laughs!
We've stayed at all, bar one, NZMCA camps in the SI now after enjoying a night at Koromiko where we wandered through the memorial bush track and had a catch up with members we'd met in Kaikoura.
We've been crisscrossing our way around the top of the SI catching up with Ian and Prue on occasions so it was wonderful to have a couple of nights with them in Murchison. It was our first stay in this wee town and we loved it. It's full of rustic old buildings brimming with stories past. We discovered a gorgeous walk that saw us climbing up a few step pinches that opened to a simple, at times muddy and blocked with fallen trees, track through native bush that ended at a weir and gorgeous waterfall. This track is right up there with the lovliest we've found so far.
We've been trying to get to the West Coast but poor weather has seen us delaying this past of our trip however we decided to just go for it so we did. We traveled on a very wet day to Westport NZMCA camp. We popped in to see the longest swing bridge in NZ, which we admired from afar, on the road to Westport. Yesterday and today have been really warm. The North Beach provided us with a great walk which we followed up with some of the Cape Foulwind track which we'll complete from the other end when we return to Westport in a few days.
Today we continued up the road to Gentle Annie camp in Mokihinui and what a camp it is, right on the wild west coast. We love the quirky details.
We noticed a Country and Western Museum in Hector, on our way here, and went in for a look. WOW! What surprise! Barry has been collecting LP's, 45's, and 1000's of photos and other morabilia for 60 years and has amassed one of largest private collections in the world. Hector is a tiny wee place and to find this here was really unexpected.
We'll explore the walks around here tomorrow between the predicted showers.Les mer