When we went for breakfast this morning, the sky was clear and there was the top of Mt Cook in all its glory! Was a great site and a beautiful morning, there was mist in the valley and the cows were all munching away! We were not woken by moos as some of you suggested!! 🙂
We headed out sometime after 8am, we had a long day of travel ahead of us, we thought it would be 9 hours, but it ended up being 7, much to our delight!
Before we came here, Greg told me that the roads were very windy on the west coast of the South Island! Can’t say I really took that in until yesterday and this morning!! I have never travelled such windy roads before and I will be quite happy if I don’t again. But I think you would love a road trip over here Ash!
Our first stop was Hokitika, a lovely little town, with lots of old restored buildings, a fabulous beach, with lots of driftwood trees – I have never seen so much as there is here, it is like they have a forest of driftwood on their beaches! They also had a great bakery, we had an apple turnover fresh out of the oven, they also had some good looking rolls made up, so we got one each for lunch later.
I had already worked out where I thought the straightest stretch of road was that I could drive – between Hokitika and Greymouth, looked like an hours driving to me, but it only ended up being a little under half an hour!! Was not much of a contribution to the long days driving. If I had driven on the rest of the route we would still be driving!!
Greg drove on to Reefton and we found a fabulous spot for lunch under a bridge by the river, was very picturesque.
We eventually got into Nelson just over 7 hours after we began, thanks to Greg’s brilliant driving, he was not at all put off by the roads. I realised today that we have travelled 3/4 of the South Island in 6 days (5 travel days), would have been more relaxing had we had more time, but we didn’t, but we have still seen so much, seems more like we have been away 2 weeks, guess that is what happens when you pack so much into a day, time expands! We have 4 more days left until we have to leave, and not as many miles to cover! Did you hear a big sigh of relief!! I am sure Greg will be pleased.
We are staying at Joya, a B & B, it is a fabulous place and our host Paulina, is a bohemian type, sort of person I love, I instantly warmed to her. And even better we are close to everything we want to see, can walk, so no driving tomorrow 🙂 Paulina recommended a couple of places for dinner, we have booked one Hopgood, for tomorrow night and went to the other, an Indian place called Indian Cafe tonight, food was delicious, we sat outside, the weather was devine and we shared some delicious food with Georgiana. John has been feeling under the weather today, so he opted not to come out to dinner, we hope he is much better tomorrow. I am hopeful that Greg and I don’t catch any bugs!! Thinking healthy thoughts, see how I go with that!! 😛
As I finish this blog, we have music playing, Greg is reading his kindle and we are in a beautiful part of the world, life is good! 🙂
xo
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