Newspapers are depressing things. According to yesterday’s “Dominion Post”, the winds in Wellington when we were there reached 140km/hour. Flights were delayed and there is a photo on the front pags of a family trying unsuccessfully to put up a tent in the Top 10 Holiday Park where we would have stayed if not for the voucher).
More depressing, however, is the report that, because of the recent heavy rains in the South Island, several rivers have been flooded and a bridge washed away somewhere between Greymouth and Fox Glacier causing the highway along the west coast to be closed. There is another problem on the way to Westport. Some holiday makers at Fox Glacier, St Joseph and Milford Sounds had to take a 400km detour to get back to Christchurch. That might be our trip gone west too.
We got up early yesterday morning to be at the ferry an hour and a half before sailing. The ferry journey was amazing. It was like being on a cruise ship – movies on board, a magician show for the children, yummy breakfast that we had pre-booked.
The journey from Picton to Nelson was very stressful, with windy curves worse than the Coromandel with the speed limit sometimes dropping down to 25km/hour. Brian says he would prefer not to travel that road again. He may have to if highway 6 doesn’t open up again in time.
We opted to stay in a park right in Nelson rather than one in Richmond 11km away. Yesterday we did a bit of a walk around which eventually turned out to be a 3 hour walk from the Holiday Park to what I thought would be blue sea but turned out to be muddy estuary, and then into town on the way back.
We stopped for a cappuccino and a juice on our way back.
Today we walked to the Centre of New Zealand, which just happens to be at the top of a hill, overlooking the sea. It was very steep in places but we got there in about half an hour.
Then we went to the beach, lazed in the sun a bit, swam a bit. This Nelson beach is a very tame beach. Fine beige sand, nive temperature water, little or no waves and you can go out very far and the water is still not above your knees.
Now we are at Motueka. tomorrow we are going kayaking in the Abel Tasman reserve.
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