Awesome Views and Walks in the Wither Hills in Blenheim

Starting the Rotary Walkway

There is quite a variety of walking tracks in the Wither Hills Farm Park, but considering we have arrived in Blenheim mid-afternoon, we go for a relatively short and easy options: the Rotary Walkway. It’s just a 25-minute climb to a lookout and we can make a circuit by joining the Gentle Annie walk (about 15 minutes) back to the car park.

Hills of golden grass

Although we talk about “dry golden hills”, Blenheim did just receive a heavy downpour on our way over here. With that, we walk into a damp pine forest with a pungent smell of pine amplified by the humidity in the air. There are all sorts of exotic plants and trees in this short section of forest that abruptly end halfway up the hill. We then reach a huge exposed area carpeted in long golden grass. An interpretation board explains how sections of this tussock area have been planted by local schools since the 1980s. Signs indicating the names of said schools are just about seen being swallowed by the thriving grass. We can’t resist lying in it for a while.

Have you ever seen fields more golden than this?!

Sheep? In a Farm Park?!

Getting back onto the path, walking through the tussock disturbs all these white moths that create quite a bizarre sight as they scatter before us with every step we take. But moths (and us) are not the only ones enjoying the grass. We almost bump into a small flock of sheep just sitting and eating among the tall grass along the track. We don’t know why we are so surprised, this is Wither Hills FARM Park, after all.

Herding the flock

As we walk further up the track, we somehow end up herding the sheep further up the hill too. Robin is delighted to be “doing such a good job” of herding the sheep. Laura thinks that the sheep dogs we saw rounding up REAL flocks in Oamaru and Fairlie did a better job…