Today was a travel and take it easy day, partly because of how busy we’d been the last two days and partly because it was hot!We found a lovely art gallery with a cafe near the bus stop so had a good nosy around. I got a VERY gingery gingerbread latte and we split a ginger loaf that was delicious.
The bus ride to Blenheim was beautiful and only 1.5 hours. We had a 15 minute walk to the hotel where we were very grateful to get into our space. Instead of staying in a backpacker style lodge like we did in Nelson, we opted for a 1 bedroom apartment and it’s very nice to have the extra room, our own kitchen and a bathroom with a huge spa tub. Annemarie used it like her own personal cold swimming pool which helped her cool off.
We ventured out do our grocery shopping, and while it was hot (about 90), because there wasn’t the humidity like in Wellington and there was some wind (like Wellington), it wasn’t too bad. We decided a no-cook dinner was in order so got salad, bread, precooked salmon and locally caught green shell mussels, something I have been looking forward to.
When we got back I took the opportunity to read and take a nap, what a treat. After dinner, when it had cooled off a bit, we walked over to the Taylor River that runs through town and is only a block from where we are staying. There are paved paths on either side and a model railway track that runs beside it for 11kms! There are large boulders every 1/2 kilometer or so that have engraved poems to the river in them written by local school kids. They must be relatively new as a few reference the pandemic.
We ended the day by watching about half of Glass Onion, which we both really enjoyed, but were too tired to watch the whole thing in one go.