Another Hike

This is Rarangi Beach on the Pacific located south of us toward Blenheim.  We found it because Wither Hills Winery has a block of vines in this area from which their premium sauvignon blanc is made, and I saw the road sign on the highway.  We went exploring one afternoon and found this black sand beach on Cloudy Bay and the adjacent tiny Monkey Bay, for those of you who drink the wine of this name.  So, because of two different wines, we found a great hiking track and an amazing deserted beach strewn with little dried sponges, well-worn shells, and round tumbled stones. 
Cloudy Bay is huge, stretching from east of Port Underwood to the chalk cliffs of the Wither Hills which you can see in the distance.  The Marlborough wine district is primarily in the valley below these hills and runs west through the Wairau Valley and south to the Awatere Valley.  As mentioned before, there are 140 wineries in this district. Only about 40 of them have a cellar door where wine may be tasted and purchased.  About 15 have cafes or restaurants.  But, I digress. 

The hiking trail we took Saturday goes up over the "mountain" at the end of the bay and down the other side to White Bay named for Black Jack White, a slave who jumped ship in Port Underwood and made his way to the adjacent bay which bears his name.  He lived the remainder of his life with the local Mauri natives.  It was a steep climb out of both bays with about a 700 foot elevation change on both sides.  White Bay is surrounded by an old pine forest which is beautiful and different from any of the other hiking trails weve used.