Hi,
Mike is creating a blogging masterpiece about our wonderful Christmas break. But for a teaser, read on.
Christmas Day
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| Christmas morning croissants |
Mike managed to find croissants for Christmas day at our usual Moulin bakery. Yay! Mike's mother stayed on Christmas Eve so she could enjoy Christmas morning with us.
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| Toby gave me a photo so I wouldn't forget him |
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| We nibble on the gingerbread house |
We made our lunch stuff and headed out to 40WLW for the lunch. The weather really turned it on after poor weather on Christmas Eve and back to freezing weather on Boxing Day.
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| Christmas lunch starts |
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| Cheers, Sally. |
Sally did an amazing job yet again. We chatted to my mother during the after lunch wind down. She would have loved being here.
We remembered Ron with a tribute of photos on the television that played through the day. One year to the day. His legacy certainly continues though.
Back home fairly early and not long from bed. Boxing Day we did a bit of shopping - using the bus. I got my new backpack from Bivouac. An Osprey 65L one. (And now I have tramped 55km with it on, I can vouch for it being a great backpack).
27 December - Our southern adventure begins
Up early for the check in at the Interislander ferry at 5.20am. Oohhh. Very early.
As we got on as foot passengers and found a couple of comfy seats around a low table, Mike saw Donna (from tramping club from years ago) with her two kids (David and Devon) wander by. So he went and nabbed them to see if they wanted to join us. They had Donna's sister and her husband with them too, so we got a few more chairs. Chatted away to them for the duration of the trip. Mike also saw another tramping mate: Richard.
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| On the ferry |
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| A little bit wild outside (but not too bumpy inside) |
Iona and Col met us off the ferry and took us to Gusto cafe for brekkie. Mmmm. We also popped into the Picton hardware shop. It was one of those cool shops that has a little bit of everything to poke your nose into.
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| Gusto iced coffee |
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| Random selfie at Iona and Col's house |
Then to their house and off for a walk to Quail Creek in the Wither Hills. Awesome walk. Sue joined us too. Yay for seeing Sue.
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| Walking Quail Creek with Iona, Col and Sue. |
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| Lovely walk |
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| Photo bombed! |
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| Me and the ridgeline |
Back to the community orchard near their house to get some plums and stuff. Then Sue went off for her thing and we wandered out to Helen and Mandy's house to help them move a couch from their top floor to the ground floor.
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| Passing down plums |
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| Helen and Mandy had this. Don't knock it til you try it. |
Let me try and capture the wonderful episode surrounding the great couch moving of 2020. Helen and Mandy had this giant leather couch on the first floor of their house. Huge burly movers had managed (with lots of swearing) to get it up there when they moved in. But now it was in the wrong place and needed to move back downstairs.
The stairwell had a landing and the stairs doubled back on themselves. After stripping the couch of what we could, we still couldn't fit it easily down. Mike got a tape measure and determined it was going to be tricky whatever way we squashed it down because the lower flight of stairs was even narrower.
My refrain was: let's just try it.
Probably lucky they didn't listen to me.
Anyway, Helen had this idea to belay it off the first floor into the foyer with the kayak tie downs. I was skeptical. But, after she removed the backing fabric from the bottom and found some solid belay points, we gave it a go.
3 of us belayed from above (me, Helen and Iona). Helen had a knotting technique for her belaying that Iona and I eschewed. I had visions of the couch getting a bit of momentum over the balustrade and taking any belayers with it. My intention was to let go if that looked likely. And being tied to the belay tie down didn't seem like a sensible idea.
But Helen knew best. Because it was so easy. We teetered the couch on its balance point across the balustrade, Mike ran down to guide it down, along with Col and Mandy. And we slowly lowered it to their waiting hands.
Gobsmacked it went so well.
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| The couch is on the ground floor! |
Helen then showed us around her garden (2 acres of it!) and described her 20 year plan to get the garden under control. She has a job for life.
Off home to get changed for dinner out with Helen and Mandy at
Thai 9. And they paid for tea to thank us. Heck - we should have paid them for such fun! Thank you.
28 December - Anakiwa to Davies Bay
We had a great sleep in Iona & Col's spare bed, and that made for a leisurely start for the day. Soon enough we were off driving to Anakiwa for a nice stroll to Davies Bay up the Queen Charlotte track.
Mike was absolutely delighted to see a coffee caravan hosted by a friendly man who couldn't take cards but was happy to get bank transfers instead. Coffees all round! Delightful.
We walked the 3km into Davies Bay and gave me a taste of the Queen Charlotte walk. The DoC campsite at Davies Bay was completely empty. So I will file that away as a possible summer holiday.
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| Hi Barb! |
Janine was waiting for us when we got back to Blenheim, having finished her Richmond Ranges adventure. Sally followed not long after. We all had burritos for dinner and then Sally picked up Andrew from the airport. (A Gilbert Plan! Sally came across on the ferry in the morning, and then Andrew flew over in the evening).
We chatted and planned adventures and did last minute packing until Sally and Andrew headed off, and we all excitedly headed to bed. The adventure begins tomorrow!
Stay tuned to see Mike's blog about the next part. It includes such highlights as:
- Flying steaks at Paroa Pub
- Great walk
- Eco lodge with stunning views
Take care.
Love,
Angela
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