Queen Charlotte Drive to havelock

This photo makes sense if you imagine standing on a road bridge near Linkwater, looking down on a farm track just after the cows have returned to pasture following morning milking. To your left is a mountain stream that drains into Pelorus Sound eventually. To your right is the track. Not so much dirty dairying as a complete failure to farm intelligently. Next time you read that a toxic algae bloom has shut down mussel farms, remember my picture. I took it at 0615hrs about 1km from Smith's Farm.

A bit further on, the road meets the Inlet, 

and fernbirds clicked together, restoring my faith in The Sounds. Mostly, it was road walking, and geography. Here is Pelorus Sound. 

Tomorrow I am taking the Mailboat out there, doing postal deliveries to the eastern properties. 

From Cullen Point I could finally see Havelock, 

and I was there by 10am. Perfect timing for a coffee and newspaper (I get both crosswords to myself) and some scheming. Friday will be fine and tops travel looks achievable over the following week. 

The town dates back to the gold rush era, and now makes its money from cows, pines and aquaculture. So green-lipped mussels are a big deal. 

Down at the docks I saw big stacks of mussel floats

and workaday boats bringing in the harvest. 

I know it's risking a cliché but how about these Marlborough rock daisies (Pachystegia) looking so healthy here in Marlborough. (My own efforts with this plant produce only lank stems and sooty mould, frustratingly).

I am staying at a backpacker's in Ernest Rutherford's old school. 

My bunk is in the classroom with the three left-hand windows. Rutherford will think I'm stalking him, because I had an office in his old lab in the Austen Building at Cambridge. A man came round every couple of months with a Geiger counter, keeping tabs on radiation levels! 

Tonight a flounder fisherman and his dog came in just as a chap was going out for three days to chase gurnard and snapper. 

Bit of a difference in gear, my vote goes to the dog. I saw his master fondle him... top man.