Blenheim

The Wairau plains were settled early in Māori history: the Wairau Bar at the river mouth is one of the country's oldest known Polynesian sites, where burials, moa bone and tools show a community living there some seven centuries ago. Later the plains and the Sounds were held by iwi of Te Tau Ihu, the top of the South Island, with Rangitāne o Wairau among those with long-standing claims to the valley.

European settlement of the Wairau began with sheep runs in the 1840s, and tension over the New Zealand Company's claim to the valley led to the Wairau Affray of 1843, in which twenty-two settlers and four Māori died. The town that grew at the junction of the Taylor and Ōpaoa rivers was so wet and prone to flooding that it was nicknamed Beavertown before being named Blenheim after the 1704 battle. When Marlborough became a province in 1859 the capital was at Picton, but Blenheim's position on the farmland won the argument and the seat moved there in the 1860s.

For a century the town lived on wool, wheat, sheep and later cherries and market gardens, with flood protection works gradually taming the rivers. Everything changed after 1973, when Montana planted large blocks of vines in the Wairau Valley; the sauvignon blanc that resulted found export markets in the 1980s, and Marlborough grew into by far the country's biggest wine region. Vineyards replaced paddocks, wineries and contractors multiplied, and the town reorganised itself around grapes, with tourism, aviation heritage and food following the wine.

Blenheim's culture is built on wine and on farming, and the two sit closely together: the same families often run vines, sheep and cropping, and the year is structured by pruning, flowering, harvest and vintage. The summer wine and food festival is the district's social centrepiece, and the arrival of thousands of seasonal workers each autumn, many from the Pacific Islands and from overseas working-holiday schemes, gives the town a temporary international character.

Aviation is an unexpected second thread. The Omaka collection and the airshow staged at the aerodrome at Easter in odd-numbered years draw enthusiasts from around the world, and the displays owe much to the model makers and set builders of the New Zealand film industry, several of whom have supported the museum. Military connections run deeper still, since the airfield at Woodbourne has long been a Royal New Zealand Air Force base.

Beyond that, the town is recognisably provincial New Zealand: rugby and netball clubs, a Saturday of sport followed by the pub, an A&P show, choirs and amateur theatre, and a strong volunteer culture in a place small enough that people overlap. Manners are informal and understated, boasting is disliked, and conversations with strangers start easily. Māori identity is expressed through Rangitāne o Wairau, whose marae, language and role in the region's governance have grown more visible since its treaty settlement.

Around thirty thousand people live in Blenheim, which makes it one of the larger towns of the upper South Island and the service centre for a district of farms, vineyards and coastal settlements. Wine dominates employment, directly in the vineyards and wineries and indirectly through nurseries, bottling, engineering, laboratories and freight. Sheep and beef farming, cropping, food processing, the air force base, aviation engineering and tourism make up much of the rest.

Housing is mostly single-storey and suburban, with older weatherboard streets near the centre, newer subdivisions to the west and south, and lifestyle blocks among the vines. It has long been one of the more affordable parts of the country to buy in, and a steady flow of retirees arrives for the sunshine, so the population is older on average than the national figure.

Days start early, especially in the vineyards, and the town is quiet by evening. Shopping, sport and schooling happen locally, while hospital specialists, university study and big retail mean trips to Nelson, Wellington or Christchurch. Recurring local concerns are water — irrigation demand, river flows and the plains' dry summers — along with housing and transport for seasonal workers, the resilience of roads and rail after storms and earthquakes, and how much further vineyards should spread across remaining farmland.

Wine comes first. Marlborough sauvignon blanc, with its sharp, aromatic character, is New Zealand's biggest wine export, and the valley also produces pinot noir, chardonnay, riesling, pinot gris, aromatic whites and traditional-method sparkling wine. Cellar doors around Renwick and the Wairau Valley pour all of them, often beside a kitchen serving platters of local produce, and the wineries have helped raise the standard of cooking across the town.

The food that goes with it is regional. Green-lipped mussels and king salmon come from the Marlborough Sounds, blue cod and crayfish from the coast, and lamb and beef from the surrounding hills; Marlborough also has the second-largest area of horticultural land in the country after Canterbury, growing fruit, vegetables and olives pressed for oil. Market stalls carry the fruit, cheese, bread and preserves that follow the seasons.

Everyday eating is straightforward and familiar: the bakery pie and sausage roll, the flat white and its accompanying slice, fish and chips, the barbecue on a long summer evening, and pavlova with cream and fruit at a family gathering. Whitebait fritters appear in their short season, and hāngī, food cooked in an earth oven, is prepared for community and marae occasions.