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Published: April 19th 2009
Life Boat
Fortunately we didn't have to use it.February 26, 2009
"Sail away, sail away, we will cross the mighty ocean"... into Picton Bay Randy Newman
I have a mid morning ferry to the South Island so I’m up coffeed and waiting in line around 9:00. Another first,(the ride) this ferry is nearly as big as the cruise ship I was on several years. Key here is not to have the same experience, i.e. sea sickness. I followed the usual advise, the sea was calm and all went well. I arrived in Picton around 2:00. A small town, I just followed my instinct from the Google map I had viewed and drive directly to Ron and Paula’s, a very cool little flat immediately on the water. Story is it belongs to a doctor friend that doesn’t live here & when it became available they decided they couldn’t pass it up. Ron Laughlin is the guy I met on line who has written the New Zealand Travel Guide and now earns a living as a freelance writer/photographer and from commissions booking vans etc. for travelers. I could take several pages telling you all I learned about Ron and Paula so let’s just leave it at this -
Your reporter
I'm smiling so that means I didn't get sea sick! If you were a lot of the guys Jimmy Buffett sings about you would be Ron. He actually lived in Key West 15 or so years running bars and restaurants. Had a sail boat that sailed the gulf islands and that is only a small peek at his life. Like the guy in one of Jimmy’s songs he “earned enough money to buy Miami but I pissed it away so fast…” I had told Ron that I wanted to do something special to note Matt’s passing and boy did that happen. Ron and Paula had arranged an evening cruse/ picnic with their friend Marty and we all went out on Marlborough Sound to celebrate Matt. Marty, and old time fisherman wrote a Maouri Sailors Prayer which he recited as I spread Matt’s ashes and then to close the ceremony I washed my hands in a bowl and poured the water into the sea as a symbol of fair passage. Sail on Matt. (are you crying? I am/did) In my honor Ron had smoked some ribs and we had fresh corn and tomatoes from their garden. After this along with a couple of bottles of Kim Crawford Pinot Noir we headed
back to Picton for a night cap, actually a flat white and lemon tart. To bed and to sleep. A most wonderful day!
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