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We awoke to glorious sunshine streaming across the vineyard - the vines are beginning to turn now, so there was a fantastic golden glow. However, by the time we’d had breakfast and readied ourselves for the off, the clouds had begun to close in. The drive to Nelson was absolutely gorgeous - the clouds were hanging half way down the mountains, often with the sun shining through, although sometimes with the rain falling - it really was stunningly beautiful. We also noticed the poor sheep had been fleeced ... they looked so scrawny and naked without their woolly coats - why do they shear them just as winter comes?
So we arrived in Nelson in the pouring rain - it was coming down in sheets and the wind was blowing the leaves across the streets. It was all very bleak. We decided to take refuge in the library and update our blog and check our email. The libraries are really well attended here (perhaps they are at home, but we rarely go!) - perhaps it’s the high price of books in the shops that makes people use the library more. What I really like (apart from the free internet in
most, some charge a nominal fee) is the fact that you can take out copies of magazines - I’ve been able to read the backcopies of some of the NZ Quilter! You can also buy decommissioned books - I picked up 5 whodunnits for NZ$1 - bargain! (it was actually 6 books for $1, but all the others were romances - pah! - the librarian offered to give us change out of the $1! We generously said they could keep the 17 cents!!)
We eventually decided we had to brave the outside and dashed across to the supermarket. We then dashed back to the van and took off to find somewhere attractive to eat our lunch. I did manage to pick up a new pair of flipflops - but I think I’ll be dusting off the walking boots shortly! The floods have been the worst in 10 years down south, and the rain is over us now and it’s moving up to the North Island. Now some of the parts of the North Island have been designated official drought areas and they’ve been bemoaning their lack of rain - now they’ve got some coming their way, they’re saying they
don’t want too much ... makes me think of the Life of Brian quote ‘no pleasing some people’!
We passed a wonderful pub with a blackboard outside advertising its ‘husband creche’ - so if wives have had enough with their hubbies under their feet, they could enrol them into the crèche! Made us chuckle. We drove past a bowling green that looked more like a boating lake. We watched in amazement the kite surfers out on the beach (we could just about see them through the rain and gloom!). And strangely, in the middle of nowhere, we passed a fence covered with training shoes tied to it - we have no idea why!
Finally we were on the road to the Abel Tasman National Park that has been recommended by so many people. For those that don’t know Abel discovered NZ in the 1600s, had an altercation with the Maoris and left telling everyone not to go because of the savages (I think they ate several of his crew) - but he did take the trouble to name it after his home region, Zeeland. It was over 100 years later that James Cook came on the scene and
he always had a soft spot for the Maoris (despite losing 10 of his crew to their cooking pots!).
There’s been a lot of fuss on the radio today as a special commission that had been created to look into binge drinking has recommended raising the legal age to drink (from 18 back to 20) and levying a higher tax on alcohol. Did you know that NZ was the first country in the world to allow women’s suffrage - they got the vote in 1893. One of the reasons was that until then, men were being plied with drink and persuaded to vote certain ways. It was felt that the women’s temperance movement would see the end of that - and that women’s votes could not be ‘bought’. Another interesting fact (I’m full of them today!!) - it was only relatively recently that they relaxed licensing laws - closing time used to be 6pm!
Anyway, we wound our way round yet more hairpin bends and mountain passes (rather think that will be the norm here), past some mud flats where people had left messages written in stones, and finally, finally, finally,
ended up at the DOC campsite at the tip of Golden Bay in the Abel Tasman. We are parked really close to the beach and I can hear the crashing of the waves on the deserted beach. We also saw some roadsigns with penguins ... so I have my fingers crossed we might get lucky ... please, please, please!
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