Short weekend away in Picton - Day 4 - time to come home

Monday - Queens birthday weekend - a public holiday!

Time to pack up and go home.

At least the front ripped through (again) and we started with a misty and somewhat polluted day! Still it promised to be sunny - all the way back to Christchurch - and so it should eventually proof!







Before we headed back, I tried to take some more pictures of the fore-shore and then stitch them together, later, once back home. (turned out ok - what do you think?!)

The Johanesshof brewery ( modeled on some Austrian / German wine-hof) was sadly closed for the day - so have to miss that (it will keep till next time) and thus we had no local wine to bring back home - oh wait there is the Giesen!!!   yusssss :)

Decided we would visit Renwick - the home of the next NZ Scout Jamboree and have a look-see!!!  Eventually found the location -  after driving through the town and having to turn around - main drag is VERY short.  Boy - this Jamboree is going to be a squeeze (and so it should prove later!!!)


Anyhow - from there we went and found the Omaka Air museum after getting lost a bit among the many roads around the many vineyards! A fantastic place with a lot of WWW I air craft models on display and some interesting stories behind them! We have certainly "improved" our planes since then!!!!



Check out the TIMBER propeller on Snoopy's main enemy!!! Nice Work!!











The ETRICH Taube - modeled by a German chap named  'Etrich' ,  on a specific bird - the Dove.  It was the only large-ish bird in his home town and he spent a lot of time studying the wings / feathers in Bird-flight - so to speak, he eventually modeled his first plane on those studies.  Funny how the war and the need for greater speed and height lead to all modern aircraft we know today.  Guess it is true --
'necessity IS the mother of all inventions!!! "









I was lucky enough
( a - not many folks in the museum - and b - having my camera gear on me) to take a shot of the model behind a extremely large mural, making it seem I flew OVER the battle field and used my camera to get this 3 dimensional shot . . . .

Close-by is the "Wine" museum - a place I am sure the scouts will NOT visit! It is worth it though - you see the history of NZ's burgeoning wine making - its beginnings to current day industry!  Marlborough supplies more then 50% (think from memory it is 73%) of ALL wines made in NZ - and they are still expanding.  A certain Timber-firm that Mamabear is working for is flat out making the posts that hold up the wines etc!!!  

Eventually had to face it and go back home but not before we struggled to find a SIMPLE cafe with SIMPLE sandwiches (in Blenheim) for lunch - so ended up going to Maccas instead! Then the 4 hour drive home.  A weekend well spent relaxing and a change from the last 10 or so year's being with the Scouts camping.  What will I do in June 2017????

Little did we know what the next 6-8 months would hold in store for us!!!!!



Have fun!