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The Garage
It must be the holiday that's given me the energy - to take on the garage clear out! A long, long time ago in a house far far away, there was a garage with a car in it. The car moved out to seek better opportunities. Son moved back and converted the garage into a 'lads den'. People would come from miles away to play computer games in the 'Peter garage gaff'. Carpets were laid, blankets used as draught excluders, TV, mini bar etc etc. It couldn't last - winter came. The aftermath was left to the long suffering parents to sort out - no change there then. Still, phase one was completed before Christmas - everything was pushed to the back and, amazingly, the car (returned after seeing that the grass wasn't any greener on the drive) squeezed back in. Phase two has gone relatively stress free so far, thanks to the charity bag that came this week - they take anything! Result.
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What happened next...
Well, we finally recovered from the jet lag. Coming back to this weather, we need extra lagging. The best bit about coming back is re-living everything again by sharing our experiences with friends and family. I've cut the photo collection down to prevent people glazing over at the fiftieth mountain view. "....and this one is of me and Doreen outside the toilet block with the mountain in the background".
My next project will be to 'glue' the bits of video together and play at being Steven Spielberg - it will be an epic with a cast of thousands, well, two. Should be finished in time for the Caan film festival.
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Thank you and goodnight
What an adventure that was. We will be living off these memories for some time to come. Thanks to everyone for your prayers/good wishes and support whilst we were away. If you've been following this, then I hope it's been a little entertaining and not too boring for you. At our age, we will need this reference material to remember everything we saw and did!
Martin & Doreen
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Back to Blighty
Saturday 6th - I think.
The fog of jet lag is subsiding now. We departed Vancouver without hitch and made good time to Heathrow. By the time we landed though, I must have looked like an extra from 'Sean of the dead' - that's what it felt like from my side anyway. We stopped for an automatic pilot feeding session in a pub at Marylebone and waited for our train back to Wellington.
We boarded the Wrexham and Shropshire train, which left on time as usual - great train service these folks provide. Carriage felt like first class - free wireless, power, happy smiley train manager who helped us on with our cases - top stuff.
Arrived in Wellington 2030hrs - on time. Our wonderful neighbours collected us and took us home. We were relieved that Ella hadn't wrecked their house after looking after her for a whole month. She had behaved, so we won't be sending her back to the science lab. I think she was a bit miffed that we had come back - living the life of Reilly.
Fortunately, we were beginning to 'wake up' again when Hannah arrived around 2330, so we managed to keep going a bit longer.
zzzzzzzzzzz
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Ground hog day
Friday 5th
Well, where to start? Yes OK, I've seen the Sound of Music as well.
Just about woke up in time for the sunrise, but there was a bit of cloud around that spoilt it a bit – hey ho. I feel a strange mix of excitement and depression as we go through the check list of things to do with the van before taking it back. It was going so well..... filled with water, empty waste water, cleaned out the loo cassette (I won't go into the wee details). Topped up with windscreen washer, tidied everything inside, everything packed and ready to go! Then, as we were dumping the waste water, I noticed that the 'flush' water needed topping up. No problem, there was a water hose right there. What followed was a cross between a Chuckle Brothers sketch (to me to you) and a Laurel and Hardy classic.....
“OK Doreen, switch on the water. Nothings happening darling. Oh, I see, it's on a meter. No problem, I have a suitable coin in my pocket – stick that in and we will try again”. (At this point, neither of us has noticed that the tap is still in the 'full on' position. Martin – casually holding end of hose, Doreen putting money in – result: calamity. Water going everywhere – Martin's face included. “Switch it off – quick”. Right – let's try that again. Hose into van pipe – switch on. The flipping valve has only got two settings – 'Fire Department Inferno fighting' setting and OFF. Good grief – it went everywhere again. We had started to titter at this point and see the funny side of it – but we completely cracked up when after completing the task, we realised that the cab window was fully down and had let in copious amounts of water – probably akin to a small NZ lake. Once we had pulled ourselves together again (fortunately, nobody was witnessing this fiasco), we dried off the worst of it – got rid of all the dust anyway. We drove on to Christchurch in a 'demob happy' kind of mood.
As we followed the coast road on toward Christchurch – bonus – saw a dolphin at play. He/she gave us our own private showing – fantastic.
The remainder of the journey was standard highway driving for about an hour and we arrived back at the drop off point to be greeted by a nice chap from Belgium. After checking the van out, he was very impressed with the interior cleanliness (little did he know that it had been hosed down at 60psi a couple of hours ago). He made us a nice cuppa and we chilled out for a while before getting into the shuttle van to the airport (10 mins around the corner). We kept doing the usual stuff – saying goodbye to everything as we went past it: The Antarctica centre, the fruit and veg shop, the taxi rank....
It was still a lovely day in Christchurch as we boarded the plane for Auckland – we said goodbye to the runway.....
There wasn't much hanging around at Auckland. Once we were through security, it was just about time to board. The man blew his whistle and waved the flag and we took off on the 13 hour epic journey to Vancouver : home of the winter Olympics 2010.
This long haul flying doesn't get any easier – fortunately, we know a good Chiropractor!
As before, the Air New Zealand 747 was good – wide seats for my ample bottom and good leg room. The targets came and went. First the international date line (which I thought was something to do meeting new people) and then the equator. On and on and on we went. Sleep, awake, sleep awake. There we were, waking up on Friday 5th all over again.
Hooray – Vancouver!
Well done Vancouver airport – very easy transfer routine, free wireless internet and we got to see some of the athletes arriving (Russian snowball team or something like that I think).
The news here is all about the Ethiopian cross country skier (shades of the Jamaican bobsleigh team).
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The long goodbye
Thursday 4th
Got up to catch the sunrise – doh! Too late. Maybe try again tomorrow as we have an early start to get back to Christchurch to drop the van off and then to the airport. We've spent most of today just pottering around in and out of the sun, a bit of packing, a bit more sun etc.
We've just got back in from our evening walk along the beach – it's been a cracking day weather wise again, but nice and cool now. Quaffing a very nice beer at the moment – Monteith's Summer Ale. We are just about all set for the journey home, the next update will be as and when I get a WiFi hotspot somewhere – I've no idea what day it will be. We leave Auckland at 2045hrs on Friday and arrive in Vancouver at midday on Friday – bit like Dr Who really, although for us TARDIS will stand for (after this holiday and going back to work),
'The Average Routine Day In Shropshire'.
NZ is a beautiful place and we've been blessed to be able to come here and see it, but hopefully, it will also help us to appreciate what is around us everyday.
Now Martin – it's BACK TO THE FUTURE.......
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Kia Ora
Wednesday 3rd
It was tough waving goodbye, but we had to move on. We will have fond memories of our time with Ron and Paula.
For the first time since we started, we are now beginning to think of the dreaded journey home – all 23 hours of flying time. Arghhhhhh! Still, there's a 6 hour break in Vancouver to look forward to – yeah right.
We pushed those thoughts aside and moved on to Kaikoura on the way to Christchurch. We had decided to go on a Maori tour (another Ron recommendation). Superb. Maurice (Manawatu Te Ra) took the group of 9 around his 'local patch'. This wasn't the hard sell tourist punters in/out type thing – his whole family were involved and welcomed us into his home. It was very intimate and special time with them as they shared their history and culture with us. You just had to be there. The 'Hongi' – the nose touching thing was really cool. I have to say though that the group we were with were rather like characters from an Agatha Christie story. There was the German couple, the two young 'in love' Aussies, the older lady that wore safari clothing and the mysterious Maori couple from the North island – plus the two that definitely didn't do it – Doreen and me. Didn't notice any murders, but it was probably the butler.
We spent the whole afternoon with Maurice and various members of his family going to different locations around the area.
We arrived at our site 'by the sea' just 5 mins down the road at Peketa beach, smashing, super, lovely.
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Tuesday 2nd
Quite excited today – we go to meet Ron Laughlin and his wife Paula in Picton. What great folk – they made us completely welcome as if we were family. Had a fantastic evening with them – drink in the Irish bar across the road, fish and chip supper and a few glasses of wine while we shared the trip with them. We can't thank Ron enough for the itinerary he put together for us, there are things we've seen and places we've visited that we would have missed without his knowledge. Now, the icing on the cake..... For once, my master plan came to fruition! I had been putting Doreen off buying anything the whole trip, because I had a cunning plan. Paula is a silver jewellery designer and (this is the clever bit) it was our silver wedding anniversary holiday – good eh? It was a bit of gamble that Doreen might pick something too expensive, but hey, live dangerously I say. It was all classy stuff – inspired by the NZ culture (nzjewellery.co.nz), very gifted lady. Anyway, Doreen was a very happy bunny and it wasn't just the wine kicking in! Brownie points for me.
Went back for coffee with them the next morning before setting off. It was so nice to have an extended time of being in good company.
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Monday 1st February
Zoomed up the island to Collingwood and finally 'Farewell Spit' – the northern tip of the south island. Just how rough the sea was yesterday was confirmed by the 'surge' damage to roads and peoples front gardens – it was still lapping over the road in parts, but Doreen was driving so I encouraged her to go on! Once at the spit, we made ourselves cheese sandwiches and had a grand day out.
On the way back, we took the scenic route – accidentally. Yes OK, I was navigating, but so chilled out, I just kept saying to Doreen, 'go straight on here love'. It was only about 10 minutes before we realised.
Once back on the right road, we headed off to Havelock. Sounds a bit like a song title that – like 'anchor down in anchorage'. Nice folk again there – Neville (Pick) Pickering and his wife Pauline. Harbour side location, this place is famous for its 'green lipped mussels'. Pauline had recommended the pub across the road and we didn't need any further encouragement. I proceeded to order the mussels for starters – when in Rome etc. They were OK – bigger than your run of the mill mussel, but very tasty. They did this cool thing with the red hot slab of granite so you could cook your own steak how you liked it – we both went for that and it was good. Nice peaceful, cooler evening.
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Sunday 31st
We said a fond farewell to our little hotel 'cottage' and saddled up again.
It's a long weekend here – local holiday to mark the anniversary of Nelson the town, so lot's more people around/on the roads. Easy enough trip up the road to the Abel Tasman National Park. We arrived at the centre and booked ourselves in together with a 'water taxi' to take us up the coast to secluded beaches. There was a bit of walking involved, but nice gentle stuff and a deserted beach at the end of it. The main beach had about 40 odd folk on it when we got there for the return taxi journey. However, the wind had significantly freshened (our skipper on the way out said it would) and the sea was very lumpy for such a small vessel. We watched one taxi come in and give up as the swell/waves were just too big. If our taxi didn't get in, we would have to wait for a bus to come into the park along a basic service road and take us back (2 hour journey). It was tense.... but our skipper made it – what a guy. We were almost wiped out in the process together with the other 3 passengers, but we scrambled aboard. After a few minutes at sea, we wished we hadn't! It was a good hour to get back and the sea just got rougher – it was exciting at first, but then boring and then sickening! We gratefully jumped off the boat once back to camp and went for a lie down in a darkened room.
Hot and sticky tonight – the sea breeze is still around but not strong. It's not the prettiest of sites, but it's right on the beach again.
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Saturday 30th
Still in Nelson, but run out of related gags, I'm just not a patch on what I used to be. More bed, pool etc. Watched some of the Australian Open tennis – Murray will have a tough time tomorrow. Went for nice walk around the bay, hot day again. Deep joy.
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Friday 29th
In Nelson. I see no ships, or roads – feet up, no driving for a couple of days. Just a bit of pampering. Pool, spa, restaurant, proper bed etc etc. You've got to hand it to Nelson.....
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