Leaving the sandflies behind

Time was 8am when we left Murchison & 15 degrees,lovely morning,although there was fog on the hills.

As we are traveling along we noticed a crop of some sort,turned out it was hops,seemed to be a prevalent crop for the area we are traveling through,Tapawera.

A bit further along we actually came across someone harvesting the hops,so we stopped & watched for awhile
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Hop

As we passed the Mc Leans Recreation Area we noticed quite a few Gypsy style vehicles there,later heard on the radio there was a Gypsy Fair in Nelson.

Took these photos through the window as it was raining

 There were fruit trees & more hops in the Ngatmoti area then vineyards in the Motueka Valley,very picturesque area.

 They look like they train the fruit trees to grow a certain way

Types of fruit seemed to be Nashi pears & apples Motueka its self had a lot of  Nashi pears,apples kiwi fruit &  hops that we passed on the way to Takaka.

 First time I've seen Kiwi Fruit growing

Now that was a steep windy climb in the rain up into the mist & over the Takaka Hill (more like a mountain).Really ended up being a waste of time as the rain was quite heavy & you really couldn't do much,had a bit of a look around , had lunch,then went back over the hill.Would have been so much nicer without the rain,but you can't do much about the weather except make the most of it.

Decided we'd stay at Havelock $24 clean,tidy & friendly.Mussels seem to be their claim to fame in the area.