The River Queen

Here is an unusual café for people to visit when they are strolling along some of our river tracks. It is the River Queen and this boat takes tours downstream on the Opawa River towards the Wairau Lagoons. It is a fun thing to do; there is nice scenery and interesting bird-life to photograph. She is moored alongside the riverbank just a few steps from the Blenheim town centre.
The Opawa River is the extension of the Taylor River and is tidal. Many years ago a small coastal shipping service operated from near where the River Queen is berthed. The “Echo” was the last vessel to navigate the Opawa River and hence the Wairau Bar and across the Cook Strait to Wellington. There is some fascinating film footage of the Echo to be found on the internet. Coastal shipping became uneconomical once the Cook Strait roll-on-roll-off ferries came into being in the early 1960s.