Renwick to Blenheim

Wednesday May 9, 2018, 9 miles (15 km) - Total so far: 4,533 miles

(7,295 km)

Hardly worth an entry but, for completeness……. This strange backtrack was motivated entirely by my wish to participate in Blenheim parkrun on the Saturday.

We took the New Renwick road between the two towns. It's fairly quiet with an intermittent shoulder, and pretty scenery. It also allowed us to check out Villa Maria and Wither Hills wineries, which we planned to visit during our stay.

We stayed at Copperbeech backpackers. It’s a friendly place but, without doubt, geared up for the working holiday visa brigade. I reckon we were the oldest there by about 15 years! It’s a little run down / grungy but seemed to be cleaned every five minutes, so surface mess was minimal. They were very busy, so we ended up in the caravan out the front which was actually brilliant

• cheap, comfortable and the extra personal space was a huge bonus. The kitchen gets really busy when everyone gets home from work but was practically deserted later in the evening. Things livened up at the weekend, but it was all fairly low key.

Blenheim is a lot bigger than Renwick! The wide range of amenities (read coffee shops) came as a welcome change. We did indeed visit Villa Maria and Wither Hills, plus Lawson’s dry hills - all highly recommended. As is the ‘Wine Station’ - more self-serve wine. And parkrun was great of course :) my 49th, saving my 50th for Sydney!