Newton was surveyed in 1840, and renamed to Picton in 1859. Surveying of the Wairau Valley was considerably slower, partly due to the poor behaviour of the settlers with the local Māori. The inability of the settlers and the New Zealand Company to keep to simple promises escalated to a confrontation with Te Rauparaha in 1943 at Tua Marina in which 22 settlers were killed. The New Zealand Company slowed their acquisition of land in the Wairau and nothing much further happened till 1947 when Govenor Grey reached an agreement with Te Rauparaha to puchase all of the South Island north of Christchurch for £3000. Even before this, there were squatters on the land, from small areas to very large grazing estates, although some were separately negotiated with Te Rauparaha. Within three years all the open land had been taken up.
The population of the Wairau and Awatere Valleys in 1849 was 189. By 1855 this had risen to 627. A town was needed and Blenheim was surveyed in 1856. Shipping had good access up river to Blenheim after the 1855 earthquake, and the land was dry and flood free - until the Wairau changed its course in 1861. Also, the Māori, of whom the settlers were still afraid, lived a long way away, at Spring Creek.
The Wairau River change in 1861 destroyed the good shipping access to Blenheim, leaving a bar that only light ships of no more than 20 tonnes could navigate. The only practical solution for moving farmed goods out was a train to Picton's deep water port (the internal combustion engine had yet to be invented). Construction of a rail line from Picton to Blenheim started in 1872, funded from part of Julius Vogel's public works program, which was backed by a £10M loan from London. It was completed in May 1880, three years later. However it did not actually reach Blenheim, as the contract had run out of funds required to complete the last two kilometres. The line stopped at Nowhere Station, as it came to be called, on the other side of the Opaoa River just over the narrow concrete bridge at the north entrance into Blenheim. For years Blenheim residents complained and eventually, five years later, the line was completed into town. The station was right here, at the page coordinates, sixty metres south of the current station.
A train ran from Picton to Blenheim each morning except Sunday, returning that evening. The connection into Blenheim brought an immediate improvement in traffic - more goods and more passengers took to rail. During the Vogel decade, 1870-1880, the population of Marlborough had risen from 6000 to 9300. A significant portion of this will be directly due to improved access, and some of that due to the fledgling Picton railway.
Blenheim's growth required improvements to the station building, and the current station was built in July 1906. (Picton Station was upgraded a few years later, in 1914.) The new station was designed by Sir George Troup and, like all other railway stations designed by Troup that are still standing, it is protected as a Historic Building.
The station was finally closed for freight in September of 1990, however it still operates intermittantly for passenger services.
The town was named after the Battle of Blenheim where, on 13 August 1704, 52,000 troops led by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeated a combined French and Bavarian force of 56,000 troops at Blindheim, in what is now southern Germany. The action ensured the safety of the Hapsburg capital, Vienna, thus protecting the English-Austrian-Dutch alliance. French losses were immense, with over 30,000 killed, wounded and missing, and a further 7000 lost to desertion during their retreat. The battle was a turning point in the War of the Spanish Succession.
Alas there is no room at the railway station for the cache. If, however, you stand right where the original station was and project off 144 degrees true, and head off that way for 1010m, you will find the cache right beside the railway, on the Riverlands Rail Trail.
Blenheim Station, about 1890
References:
Wikipaedia: "Blenheim, New Zealand"
Merrifield, R: "Beyond Dashwood", published by the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society, 1990
McGavin, T.A.: "A Century of Railways in Marlborough 1876-1976", published by the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society, 1977.
Scoble, J: "Names and Opening and Closing Dates of Railway Stations", published by the Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand, 2010