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Published: March 8th 2010
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Our spot at the bay Four seasons in one day and a couple of spliffs 😊
Well we were right about the weather change driving back from Kiakoura; it was as though the rain had never happened when we got back to Picton. We went back to the same campsite we had been on before desperate for a shower as we hadn’t had one for two days (what with our freedom camp on the Kiakoura coast). Unfortunately our stomachs had got the better of us and we had stopped briefly at MacDonald’s for a milkshake which made us 10 minutes behind - the exact amount of time we were late for the camp shop to be open where we had to buy our shower tokens!! Oh well we’ll do some of our washing instead - nope didn’t have the right coinage for that either. A little frustrated and smelly, we both went about our own ways of solving the problem; I tried scowering the grounds for dropped tokens whilst Nath tried to jimmy open the shower mechanics to override the system. Neither worked so we went to bed smelly, with no washing done and a little annoyed at how a good day can always seem
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and the view from our spot to get fecked up at the end.
Next morning in glorious sunshine we felt a little better and after a couple of hours, we were washed and had cleaned our clothes before heading off again, this time further into the sounds towards Portage. The roads were still very windy with steep cliff drops but stunning scenery. It took us ages to get anywhere and I think Nath’s arms were aching after all the driving but we managed to find a really cool DOC site that hardly anyone was at. We had tried a larger one nearer the town (well cluster of houses and a pub) but this was very popular so drove literally a few kilometres round the corner to a tiny little cove (Nicau Cove to be precise) right next to the beach and pulled up with a fantastic view of the bay - what luck. Only problem now was that the weather we had had in Kiakoura now seemed to be following us and the rain and cloud had started to set in. Hey with a view like this it didn’t matter.
So with very little to do we just chilled in the van and waited
for the weather to improve - which it didn’t really so in the end we went for a walk around the beach coast line - into the mist wooooooooo. Anyway we walked as far a s we could (practically round to the next cove) and had periods of sun, cloud and rain all in separate intervals, so went form coat off to on again in a matter of minutes. Nath found a crab on the way along which I managed to frighten by throwing a small stone at it to get it out form under its hide hole, but forgot to tell Nath I was doing this so he missed the shot anyway and the crab just got frightened and hid further in its hole (Nath- surprise surprise! What did Mandy think it would do? Break into song and dance in thanks for the stones from heaven?? - Special!). On the way back we kept coming across loads of old fishing wire, some with weighs on, that had got caught around rocks as the tide had gone out, so we collected it all up and took it off the beach after all we didn’t want some poor bird getting caught
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A big purple crab - who isnt interested in chasing stones!! in it and never fulfilling its destiny of an aerial strike on some unsuspecting tourist!! Back in the van the rain set in again, this time a bit rougher. You could watch the wind whip the water up of the sea as it past, and then ever now and then it would fool you into thinking it was safe to go out with a blast of sun, that inevitably only lasted until you stepped out of the van!!
After some reading and blogging, the weather really did improve so we decided to head back to the pub we had seen at Portage about 3kms away. It was a nice walk although the cucaracha bugs were so loud it was deafening. We made it to the pub after a while and the sun was out in full force now, just in time for us to sit outside the pub bar with a beer to enjoy the view of the Pelorus sounds. Its times like this that we really sit back and appreciate the travelling; the little things are often the most rewarding. We had considered staying for dinner and having more alcohol but considering the couple of drinks we had
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Mandy looking for more stones to throw at wildlife were over 12 dollars and on seeing the menu we decided that this would be a waste of money, so finished our drinks and made our way back to the van before the sun set. It seemed a quicker walk home, although I was sooo desperate for the loo at one point I just had to find a bush to relieve myself in. This was difficult considering that everything hat looked like a nice covered bush was actually a cliff edge. In the end I found a vine big enough to hold onto to pee over the edge of a cliff - I hope no one was underneath on the beach???
That night we watched a film in the cosiness of Elton and went to sleep very early with the curtains open to the night sky and all the stars. It was lovely but as usual we just couldn’t stay awake long enough to appreciate them. I struggled to sleep that night, with my feet itching and all and at one point in the night they really started reacting and I had to get out and put cold tissue on them, as the cooling stops the itching. Next morning
we were awoken by the van rocking (not by us) but by the weather. A storm had set in and was whipping up the bay we were in and with us being at the front we had no coverage so were bearing the full brunt. As I got up to check out my feet (I have a daily ritual of checking the swelling) I noticed when I pulled back the covers that some of the tissue I had used was turned into some kind of roll up spliff, which Nath and I laughed at for a few moments, before I turned to find the rest of it next to me. Now what was different about this tissue was the motif that was rolled around with it. As I looked closely the realisation started to kick in, but I was still in denial. Nath didn’t dare utter the words when I past him the roll and asked what he thought it was (even though I was sure myself). He confirmed it with a look “I think you’re friend from the window edge let himself in last night!!” I was disgusted and a little freaked out, the spider we had tried in
vein to remove from the van in Napier had come through the hole (probably due to all the wind and rain) and got onto the bed where I had obviously rolled on him and crushed him. But not only that my arse had continued to crush and roll him into a tissue spliff!!!. There were even a few legs scattered around the toilet roll, loose in my bed. What was worse was the thought that we usual lay the other way round in the bed so he could have gone in my mouth if we hadn’t decided to lay the other way!!! Aughhhhhhh makes me shiver just thinking about it!!!
Anyway, next destination Nelson………
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