[Familyofmonkeys]

We are considering stopping for one night in Blenheim, and travelling for ferry at picton following morning. Few questions:

Any idea how long we should allow to get from Blenheim to Picton?

Suggestions of things we could do with small children for one evening in Blenheim...e.g. any nice parks/tourist type buildings/places for dinner that are child friendly?

[Andy-Dee]

Can only help with the time to Picton bit as we stayed with friends in Blenheim and it only took 20 -30 mins to the ferry. We were in our friends pool most of the time but its not open to the public yet!

Montana vinyard was nice and had a fabulous play area for small'ish children say 3 - 9 years. They also do wine tasting and lunches.

As I recall there was also a fab beach near by and very safe - someone else will have to help out with a name though.

[katandbob]

we stayed there after we got off the ferry, all I can say is it didn't feel friendly, the corner shop charged us $5 for a loaf of bread, and $4 for a 1 L milk! The KFC was about the same (bit of a supprise after the friendliness of Taupo and surrounding areas.

We ended up staying in the motel room for the night,which was clean, big & had heaters (spa bath & we had a bottle of wine left from Taupo) so we stayed in.

But the receptionist was friendly, and was from Scotland staying with her aunt who owned the motel.

I hope you have a better visit... oh and it was easy to get lost there.

and although I am used to it now, the Pitch black roads and twisty corners from Picton to Blenheim were stressful, but we had been traveling most of the day and we were tired

Kat

[katiejay]

Being a bit sad, and cheap(!), we drove the kids through the dark BACK to Picton to look at the harbour lights at night! Not much going on in Blenheim when we were there, but the campsite had a good playground (doesn't every town in NZ?). We drove to Nelson, which was delightful - took the kids to the Wearable Art museum, which also had a car exhibition, and was really entertaining. Nelson is great for just wandering about, and has a lovely park. It's quite a drive from Blenheim, though, so not sure if that's any help to you.