Yesterday we considered a zero walk day. The weather was blustery and bucketing down. The tent was difficult to take down in the conditions. We decided to transfer up to the Havelock Hotel and see out the day and night there. Glad we did. Lightning and thunder. Local rivers rose by a metre and reports from the hill crossing is there had been a number of washouts and slips. By evening we made the decision that we’d take Highway 6 to Renwick and then onto Highway 63 to reach St Arnaud. The Richmond Range would keep for another time.
By 9.20 on the morning of day 58 of walking, we headed out of Havelock under a mixed sky. The South Island roads are well made, and we usually had plenty of berm space to distance ourselves from traffic. The trickiest part was the bridge crossing the Wairau River. It spans at least 400 metres and has a narrow pedestrian path to negotiate.
We discovered a beautiful red apple tree roadside. The apples were crisp and sweet. The best apple forage we’d had.
Along a fenceline there were pairs of shoes tidied for half a kilometre.Tramping boots, trainers, sports shoes, high heels etc.
As we came into Renwick, grapevines adorned the paddocks in perfect parallel formation. Bunches of grapes hung ready for harvesting. There are numerous wineries in this area. Many of the wineries you see on labels at the supermarket. Booming cannons sounded out - these scared birds away that may otherwise help themselves to the grapes. Large fans towered above the grapevine rows. These are used to help prevent morning frosts settling and damaging the crops.
By evening we had a feed of burgers in us from the local, and our tent up at the Watsons Way Backpackers Lodge.
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