Easter Sunday 27 March, Day Off in Wairau Valley.

Kathy & Tony are taking it easy today and sit around the heated pool enjoying the sunshine and 25°C. A good opportunity to catch up with postcards etc. The afternoon is equally relaxed but we take a stroll up the road, past the tavern, to the old church which has some interesting headstones. Some are sad, documenting drownings or early childhood deaths, but many others had a good innings. The lavender and soap shop is sadly closed so no retail opportunities there.

Meanwhile Colin & Suz spent the day at Peter Jackson's Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre just outside Blenheim. Colin was as happy as a pig-in-sh@t and the displays were absolutely top class. However, trying to find some milk in Blenheim on Easter Sunday proved to be a major task.

We enjoy Sundowner drinks with the other guests in the common room with a big wood fire as the evening was starting to chill. Dinner was at the Wairau Tavern where some good Thai food was enjoyed as the owner's wife is from Thailand. A down-to-earth small pub but with character due to its ~130 year age, the paraphernalia on the walls and ceiling, and the publican. It turns out that he worked in WA for several years at the Leinster mine. Unfortunately, as soon as he heard Tony was a geologist (thanks Kathy) he brought out his pet rock. Asked to identify it, fortunately Tony was able to recognise it as a sample of botryoidal nickel sulphide.