Kaikoura to Havelock

Back on the road North the road now tightly hugged the mountains on the left and was squeezed in between the sea on the right. Every so often there were huge dry fords where I assume the winter rains would flood the roads. Along side each of them are single lane bridges for when they're in spate. Eventually the road turned away from the coast inland through strange undulating mounds that were bright yellow because of the dryness of the grasses,on further and the vineyards started again massive plantations of them as the land flattened out into the Blenheim Plain. I drove on through Blenheim, deciding to go further round the top of the island and headed towards Nelson. Having been driving for nearly 2 hours I decided to stop at Havelock a small town at the point where the Pelorus and Kaiuma rivers meet. I parked up next to the marina and had a wander round. The sun was out, it was a warm still day and it was beautifully quiet. Noting that there was a campsite just behind the marina I drove round and booked in. In the evening I went up to the Clansman pub as it seemed to be the only place with an y life in the town, once in there it was obvious this was the life of the town. It was packed with locals and tourists and the food looked good so I stayed for tea of locally caught green shell mussels (which are only found in this part of the world and have an amazing greenish/blue iridescent shell), followed by rump steak served on a hot stone. A couple of beers and I was well stuffed. Back at the campsite, which surrounds the local rugby pitch, I looked up at the near clear sky but because of the near full moon, I could make out the Southern Cross and a few other stars but not much else. A pity really as there was hardly any light pollution from the town.