Farewell Watsons Way! Thanks Peter for the chats.
At Fresh Choice for a stock up on supplies as we are a few days until a grocery store. Lucy stopped to talk. She works for a local winery called Te Whare Ra. She described the journey we are doing as phenomenal. Conversation rolled easily. After farewells, we made our way along a street to take us onto Highway 63 (the long, largely straight road, to St Arnaud). Lucy pulls over to meet us kerbside again and invites us to call in at the winery just along the road. She would be happy to show us around if we had a spare hour. ‘For sure!’
In that hour or so we found out so many things about their wine making process. Too much to include in this blog post. We met owners, Jason and Anna, who were also both lovely people and asked questions of our journey. As Lucy walked us to the winery boundary on Highway 63, we felt so grateful that this opportunity to connect with others had happened. We decided that the Te Whare Ra winery now had a special place in our hearts and we would keep an eye out for its labelled bottle in the future.
The broad strips of grape growing land, either side of the highway, provided an easy walking trail. The valley was broad and we felt a sense of awe at the growing mountain regions either side.
We had our sights set on staying at the Wairau Valley tavern. Unfortunately, for us, we discovered it closed this particular day of the week. A couple pulled over and asked where we were headed and did we need a lift. The evening was closing in and they offered us a piece of flat ground at their farmlet a kilometre further on.
Jed and Mandy were so very welcoming. Jed was a fisherman based out of Nelson. He was month on, month off out at sea and had just returned a couple of days ago.
We set up the tent in their orchard and went inside for a chat which lasted well into the evening. Both of them had been trampers, so stories unfolded easily.
It had been a big day of connecting with people, while covering a solid 27 kilometres.
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