The Monday working from home in Blenheim and then the ferry home

 Hi,

Blenheim turned on a good day for my last one in the South Island for a while. Iona took me to lunch with Mandy to the Grovetown cafe on SH1. I like that place. They only do cabinet food - but it is all very good.

Mandy is good - she was telling me all about the cat rescue place she volunteers at. They have about 130 cats and kittens! Wow.

Back at work for the rest of the afternoon. Iona cleaned the bikes down (even my one! Thank you) and did some gardening and ran some messages.

Iona harvesting some grapes

Translucent grapes

My new t-shirt at the Grovetown cafe

Finished work around 4.30 and Col wasn't too far away after her working day. I told her all about the bike trip. And then we packed my gear up and headed to Picton.

6.15pm check in on the Straitsman (it has been sold to Jersey as a ferry there so I probably will not go on it again) and we waited outside the terminal door until they called the foot passengers and cyclists (5 of us!) to board.

Easy as to get on - only a few trucks were on by then. I used my two bungees to lash my bike to a gate that seemed unlikely to get used. We had no help from staff apart from a vague arm wave and be told: go over there and find a place.

Just so I can find my bike again

Strangely empty

It never really filled up with passengers. But that was good. I had a table to myself. I just ate my South Island produce and read my book. Before I knew it, we were approaching Wellington and heading through the heads in a slight swell. The wind was fierce though - causing a lot of metal clanking on the ferry.

Ate all the blackberries and most of the grapes

Found my bike still lashed okay

Got down to the car deck to squeeze by trucks and find my bike. Then they lowered the door and I was off. Found Mike by the terminal waiting for me. Awwww. He put my bike on the bike rack and whisked me home.

So good to see him. The cats were happy to see me too. I got a lot of sniffs and mews and chirps. Well, from Moxley. Smudge deigned to come see me once Mike coerced her a bit. Okay - bodily picked her up and brought her to me.

There were flowers by my bed - and I opened the card and found a lovely note from Erin wishing me well for my extra scoop of mole excision scheduled for tomorrow. Awwwww. That was so nice.

Tuesday sunrise

More South Island bounty

I got flowers from Erin at work

Sunrise was lovely as I did my online PT session with Quentin. Shoulders, arms and back. Mmm. Feels juicy!

Mike is off to work in town today. It's just me and the cats at home. They seem happy with this situation.

Have a wonderful day!

Love,

Angela