Let’s visit Glendhu

The gale force winds at Martinborough last weekend precluded any “sitting outside in the sunshine”, like we usually do. Perhaps a trip in the car would be in order? So out came our trusty road atlas to see where we could go, preferably somewhere new to us. We had not travelled the road down to the coast to Glendhu, or seen the Glendhu Rocks, so why not go exploring down there? Just out of town we spotted a couple of cute pigs in the front of a life style block. I really needed to stop and say hello to them. They must know a pig lover when they see one as they both came trotting over to say hello back to me.

I love pigs, aren’t they cute.

Our 50km trip took us on sealed roads passing Tablelands – nothing much to see there. We turned on to the gravel road and came to a crossroad with a jumble of road signs, following the signs to Pahaoa and Glendhu. The narrow road took us across quite hilly bush clad country, it was slow driving as we went up hill and down dale. The white flowering Manuka bushes looked like the hills were sprinkled with snow. We noticed several groups of bee hives placed besides the Manuka bushes. Manuka honey is a strong flavoured honey with health giving properties and is a New Zealand speciality.

Just follow the sign and we will get there

Where was the coast, we wondered. We must getting nearer as we drove beside the Pahaoa River. Now, what is this formidable looking sign? We have never come across anything like this before. Obviously the farmers have experienced heavy stock losses. We don’t qualify as thieves or poachers and as long as we keep off private property we won’t be trespassing either.

A few more miles and we finally arrived at the coast, with the Geddhu Rocks glistening white in the sunshine. The wind was still blowing a gale as we gingerly climbed down the bank and walked along the river bed. The surrounding land was private property belonging to the Glendhu Station but travellers are free to go down the river to get to the sea.

On our return trip back Robin kept looking for a couple of strange objects he had noticed earlier. What on earth were they? They looked like a couple of containers perched precariously on top of some large wooden poles. If they were ever used for storage they have obviously outlived their usefulness now.

Another 50kms on the return trip and then we were back in civilisation again. There is nothing so interesting as travelling to a new unexplored area, along a road we had not driven before.