Hi again!
Here's the Easter blog for you...
On Wednesday, we were all ready for the 1900 sailing with plans to collect Toby from After School Care and head to the dock with plenty of time for the 1800 booking in time. I thought I should do a last minute check of the booking form, just in case. Lucky I did. Turned out I had booked Picton to Wellington for today, and Monday was Wellington to Picton. Oh dear. Mike jumped on the phone and talked to BlueBridge and we got on the 3am Thursday morning sailing. Mike spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between chortling at my booking error and saying it was for the best anyway.
So, we collected Toby and went home to bed instead. I think I managed about 4 hours sleep or so and Toby a few more than that and Mike about the same as me. Toby was very excited to be up at 1am and he was a box of birds all the way down to the dock and in the queue. By the time we found a place to sleep on board, Toby was very excited and chattered for ages before falling into a coma. Mike and Toby got about 3 hours sleep on board the boat. Not too bad at all.
We left the ferry at about 6.30am and headed straight to Blenheim for McDonalds for breakfast. Mike professed dissatisfaction with his odd pancakes but Toby and I were happy with our fare.
After filling with petrol we were off down SH1 towards Kaikoura. A cold southerly had just swept up the South Island the day before and we drove into the tail of it. All the hills all the way down had decent skiffs of snow on them. The waves were still battering the rocky coast around Kaikoura and Toby and I had great fun looking for seals and whales. Toby was sure a rock with waves breaking over it was a whale until we got closer. No surfers were about at Mangamanu. Too bitter. The views were spectacular. Sunlight was breaking through in areas and shining on white peaks along the coast.
SH1 turns inland south after Kaikoura and we hurtled through to Amberley where we headed even further inland on SH72. We fell off SH72 briefly due to a detour that steered us wrong around Woddington. Lunch at Geraldine and back on the road to Dunback. I think we arrived around 1630 to a cold wind but lots of sun. The traffic had been fine and we all felt tired but happy to have arrived. We ate tea and fell into a coma in bed.
Next morning was fine and we went for a walk to the swing bridge and checked out the dairy. Just to make sure everything was still in working order in Dunback, you understand. We passed this day playing soccer in the front yard and reading in the sun. Toby crept through the bushes out the back and climbed the neighbours fence and got some grapes from the next-door neighbour for his adventure. The grapes were plump, round, juicy globules of yum and from their own vine. Oddly I was the only one that liked them and ate the whole bunch barring taste tests from others. Mike spent this day catching up on much needed sleep and his body was glued to the couch all day.
Saturday was another fine day, although not quite a nice as Friday with a bit of wind and cloudier skies. But we took off after lunch to visit Macraes goldmine where we were all amazed at the scale of the open pit. Toby was disappointed that it didn't resemble any goldmine he'd seen on television with gold-bearing carts running on rails through a myriad of tunnels. Never mind. We went into the Macraes township and saw a lovely new Aston Martin pull up. Out
hopped (we now believe) Michael Hill with his son and they went off to view his son's new artwork on the skyline - a beautiful rendition of a Haast Eagle.
Ron then drove us from there to see a skink research enclosure in the hills behind Dunback and then to my personal highlight - an archaeological site with cherds all over the ground from flint knappers hunting moa! How exciting. We then drove up to Lot's Wife (a pillar of rock on a hill) and then had an exciting 4WD drive back out to the main road to Dunback. Toby was very excited to get out and walk down a steep section while his Granddad negotiated the washout. He looked like he was panning for gold in the creek at the bottom and got very muddy. I think the van will still have mud marks in it!
Sunday saw us off to church for the 10am service in Palmerston. Toby enjoyed it and perhaps he thinks all church services give out chocolates as he got two Easter eggs during the service. He got to draw some angels during the sermon and was quite chuffed they got shown to the whole congregation afterwards. The 4 or 5 children also got to look at miniature ponies grazing in the churchyard and I saw Toby bravely patting a pony despite warnings one of them nipped from
time to time. How brave!
After lunch we went to roll our eggs down a hill so we could tuck into the chocolate. Yummo! Toby reached his chocolate limit quite quickly I thought. Toby found a new game on his DS Lite that met with approval from his grandparents and Toby gets lots of gametime. It is one where Toby is a zoo vet and diagnoses animal health problems. He has to take temperatures, respiration, give injections and even pull out teeth. We managed to prise the DS out of Toby's hands to go and gather fruit for Aunty Vivienne with his grandparents. We filled buckets and boxes with apples and crabapples. Hopefully the jam will be good and supply the Lewises till next fruit season. That evening Mike and I went for a walk and enjoyed the still evening. Not a breathe of wind. I seemed to repeat that sentence quite a bit over the weekend and Mike's response was always "That's normal for everywhere apart from Wellington". Heheheheh.
Monday morning we were up for an early departure. 7am Mike and I were on the road. We had a good drive up and we were about 3 hours early for the ferry. I think we got to Picton at 1500 after a short stop for about 20 minutes in Geraldine. The ferry crossing was easy and we chatted to returning WTMC punters coming back after 4 day tramps. They were tired and we were still quite fresh even after our 8 hour drive. We did crash into bed at 2300 though and enjoyed our own bed. Sleeping in your own bed after being away is always a welcome change.
So, wee Toby is enjoying his grandparents' hospitality in Dunedin. They have visited the book bus this morning and they have about 8 books for the week to read. They have played golf in the backyard and Toby slept well last night. So it is all looking good. I'm glad he seems to be happy about the whole experience.
I hope your Easter breaks were all good fun and relaxing! Our definitely was.
Love,
Angela
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