Blenheim’s favoured climate

Press, 18 December 1986, Page 43

Blenheim’s favoured climate

Blenheim, the commercial, cultural and administrative centre of the Marlborough Province, has always been a hot contender in the New Zealand sunshine stakes. Its winters, for those people fortunate enough to stop off in the drift north, barely justify the name, compared with those of less favoured centres further south. With so much to offer in such a favoured climate, there is little wonder that the town is becoming increasingly popular in its own right and as the hub of recreational and holiday activities in the region as varied as any in New Zealand. The town and its surrounding rural communities are not passing unscathed through the current economic downturn, corporatisation and general restructuring pains. Although there is concern for the short term there is an underlying confidence

that Marlborough and Blenheim are poised on the brink of a very exciting future.

The town is very conscious of its history and its future and is anxious to preserve the one and enhance the other. It has developed from a trading post based on marshy land adjoining two small navigable rivers to a town approaching city status and stretching to the lower slopes of the Wither Hills.

Pioneers industriously took advantage of natural features for the advancement of trade and acquired the name of Beavertown for the floodprone centre. The town’s planners in more recent times have drained the marshes and the swamps and pushed residential developments to the south to establish the unique Solar Heights subdivision, an imaginative proposal based on passive solar heating, integrated landscaping and energy conservation.

Blenheim straddles the junction of three major highways and the railroad link the North Island. Not only does the town offer a variety of accommodation through motels, hotels, lodges, guest houses and motor camps, but it is becoming increasingly popular, through the efforts of Marlborough Promotions, as a conference centre based on the Marlborough Centre.

Marlborough’s growing national and international reputation for excellence in the vineyard and winery warrants first hand experience of the wine trail.

Pollard Park, a reserve of 24.6 ha bounded in the north by Waterlea Racecourse and in the south by

Parker Street, is the most extensive reserve administered by the borough council. It provides for a wide variety of active and passive recreational activities irf“a setting of mature trees, colourful flowerbeds and green swards.

The park incorporates croquet greens and a pa-

vilion, tennis courts and pavilion, fitness trail, paddling pool, play area, adventure playground, golf course and pavilion and a picnic and barbecue area. Plantings include display beds, perennial borders, camellia beds, the centennial rose garden and a rock garden of native plants.