The long weekend of Waitangi in Blenheim with an ED visit

 Hi,

Well, the weekend of many plans around visiting Blenheim for a long weekend over Waitangi Day that were scuppered. But I had a great time still. Let me see if I can tell you all about it.

Happy birthday to Stephanie for yesterday too.

Also - there are gory pics below. So don't look if you do not want to see my deep cut. 

Mike's tramping plans were slightly curtailed on Thursday - but that meant he had time to take me to the airport after work. Woot! They decided to leave early Friday morning for their 4 day tramp. So we left work after a late meeting for me (and Mike joined it, so it kept us both a little busy) and had dinner at Roaie's at the airport.

Iced latte at work courtesy of Mike

On the plane

Onto a wee Q300 and in the last row. Had a good flight - I do not often cross the Cook Strait with Air NZ. But it was good.

Iona met me and then I was quickly at their place and settling in like I had never left since the last time. But since I was last here, they have a heat pump. Oohh - summer in Blenheim is suddenly much easier to bear.

Military planes at Woodbourne

Up Friday morning for a walk with Nicola and Iona up Quail Creek. Or rather, down it. We walked to a ridge over - then up and around and down the creek valley.

Lovely walk.

Blenheim from the Wither Hills

Walking

More walking - with Nicola

Iced latte after walk

Iced latte at a cafe in town  - what was the cafe called?  Crave? CBD?  I dunno. The one Iona wanted was closed so we went to this one. I liked the iced latte.

Back for some lunch and off to Picton to play on the SUP.  We put the stand up paddleboards in at the marina, by the yacht club. Then we paddled around to Bob's Bay. It was a little windy but the water was lovely. Two cruise ships in port - one of them was huge! It was parked up on the other side of the hill - and it was so big it towered over the hills. It looked like a building!

We had a swim at Bob's Bay for a decent amount of time. Maybe 50 mins or so. Then back on the SUPs for the easier paddle back (had the wind behind us).

Got the gear back on the ute. Had a German tourist ask to take a photo of the ute's number plate as ithe initials meant something to him. And an Aussie tourist was sniffing at a fermented karaka berry and asked us if we were New Zealanders. Iona said yes. And then the Aussie woman asked was this delicious berry was that smelled like chocolate and could she eat it?

Iona was like:  Do not eat that - it is poisonous. Karaka berry. 

The tourist was a little freaked out by this information and kept wiping her nose saying it had touched her. 

We got in the ute and drove off, glad we had staved off some stomach issues for the ship's doctor (pretty sure they were on one of the cruise ships!).

SUP fun in Picton

I catch up with the Amazing Race

Nga Kuta bay

Up on Saturday to head to Nga Kuta bay with all the SUP gear. Nicola was meeting us there too. We were in the water by 10am easily. Iona and I had a good SUP session then a break. Nicola arrived and we got back in.

I decided to swim without any lifejacket (it was shallow) while Nicola used the SUP and Iona was on the other one. Gorgeous water. Saw a few stingrays.

Anyway, Nicola had it sussed. Standing up like a boss. But then we got on the hard SUP together to paddle around. We both sat on it. It was a lot of fun. Went over the other side of the jetty from where we were set up with all our picnic gear. 

Nicola's family got back from their kayak and wanted to see Nicola's SUP action. So I slid off the SUP carefully so as not to upset Nicola who remained on it. But as I gracefully (hahahah) slid into the water, my foot hit a rock or something. And I thought to myself - I might have taken some skin off with that.

Anyway. I splashed around for a bit. And Iona asked me if I wanted to stand up on her board. So I said yes. She jumped off and I slid on. Totally gracefully. Hahah. Not! Anyway, I started to get to my feet. And my left foot that I had hurt wasn't entirely happy with this. So I got back onto my knees which bent my foot up behind me.

Iona was in the water beside me and saw my foot start to bleed heavily. This action had opened up the cut on my foot. And her comment was:  Oh, you have hurt yourself. I think we need the first aid kit for that.

Not what you want to hear from someone who has been in the ED.

Looking forward to this

Inadvertent selfie

More pics of the glorious spot

And... now I have to go to ED

Iona checked my foot and washed it out and wrapped it up. Her suggestion was to eat lunch (this happened about 11.45am) and relax and then we could drive back to Blenheim and go to Urgent Care.

So we did that. Had a lovely picnic lunch. Took some ibuprofen at midday. Then we packed up and headed into Blenheim and Col dropped me and Iona at Urgent Care around 2pm.

Urgent Care

Nurse at Urgent Care takes a look

Hmm. Bit deep and might have stuff in it. You need to take this to ED

Urgent care took a look - admired Iona's bandaging as she unwound the bandage. But after having a look, she decided it needed a wash out and that it was too deep for them to do it easily here. So off to ED we were sent. Thank you, Dawn.

Waited at ED for a while. But not long. Maybe an hour or so? Chatted to a chap that had come off his motorcycle and had gravel under his skin on his elbow. Ouch!  It was pretty quiet in the ED area so I only saw a few people come and go.

Got into a room and Dr Tom came (along with Dr Kaye) to check me out. Turns out the bottom of your foot is not easy to numb - and I needed about 7 stitches to close the wound. They gave me options that were possible.

Apply topical numbing agent and then injections to numb it

Do that - but at ankle level - but we could miss some spots and it might hurt

Or general!

Number 1 was the preferred option.

So Iona helped them apply a topical numbing agent for about 20 mins. Then Dr Tom came to administer the injections around the wound. That was SORE! I must have squeezed Iona's hand a lot. 7mls of the stuff went in my foot. It was numb - and then the doc found a new part to jab at! Ouch!

Anyway - now it was numb, the doctor could stitch it up. He used dissolvable stitches. 

Iona looks positively gleeful

Doc Tom holds the wound open for a good pic

Hey - it's numb!

All stitched up

Apparently the doc did a great job with the stitches.  Neat and tidy and all laid out nicely. Okay!  My foot modelling career is back on the cards!  Hahahah.

Back home to chill just after 5pm. I got well looked after by Iona and Col. Fed and watered well. And we watched a lot of television. Hahahah.

Lewis Road FTW

My souvenir

Twigg the dog model

Okay - this was a powdered iced coffee drink

Gourmet nachos for tea

This is how I have to wash

Keeping my foot dry is a pain - so I can only bath at the moment. With my foot hanging over the edge. Hahah.

More Lewis Road iced latte

Relaxing in the flax

Waitangi Day saw curtailed activities and we went to look after the harakeke plants that Iona uses for weaving.

Stupid foot

See that pile of rubbish we've collected?

Left it much tidier

Back home via an ice cream at Waikawa and a chill out for the rest of the day. Off to bed and up for work the next morning.

Got a flight to Wellington after work today. Mike will meet me. With his left foot sprained from his tramp. We will hobble out of the terminal together.

I have had such a good long weekend, despite the trauma to my beautiful foot. Hahah. I always get treated well here.

Enjoy your week.

Love,

Angela