Blenheim I-site Visitor Information Centre - Blenheim Railway Station

The Wairau Valley, where the town of Blenheim has grown, was once a swampy plain amidst forested hills. The higher distant mountains were covered with dense beech forest. The Te Rapuwai and Waitaha peoples lived here some 600 years ago. They hunted the wildlife in wetlands and the forests, which were replaced by native shrubs and grasslands after they were destroyed by fires.

**European Settlement and the Wairau Purchase
**The Europeans, who arrived in the mid 19th Century, burned the shrubs and grasslands to provide grazing for sheep. They also drained the wetlands, cut and milled the flax and felled the remaining forests for timber. In 1847, under Governor Grey, Ngati Toa were paid £3,000 in exchange for a block of land extending to Kaiapoi in the south. Beaver Station on the banks of the Opawa River gave the settlement its original name of Beaver, but this was changed to Blenheim in 1859. For some years Blenheim and Picton competed to become the capital of the province of Marlborough, the victory eventually going to Blenheim.

**Cloudy Bay
**Known to Maori as Te Koko-o-kupe (Kupe’s Scoop), Cloudy Bay was given its present name by Captain Cook on the 7th February 1770, because of the cloudy water brought into the Bay by the Wairau River. Whaling In 1828 John Guard established a shore based whaling station at Kakapo Bay, Port Underwood. He had originally established a community at Tory Channel, but settled at Port Underwood because of better access to Cloudy Bay.

The Treaty of Waitangi
Nine local chiefs signed the Treaty proclaiming British sovereignty over the South Island on the island of Horahora - Kakahu at Port Underwood in June, 1840.

Find the I-Site in the old railway station.

Blenheim's principal attraction is that it is the centre for a significant wine Province.

If wine is lower on your priorities the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre, open 7 days a week, is probably the world's best display of World War 1 Aircraft.

FULL DAY MARLBOROUGH CATAMARAN CRUISE WITH WINE TOUR AND LUNCH

FULL DAY OMAKA AVIATION HERITAGE CENTRE AND WINE TASTING TOUR

MARLBOROUGH FLYER TRAIN TOUR