Leaving Southern Island

I woke up at 5:50 to have a sneak preview of the weather of the day. Sun and clouds and a lot of wind! All made for a beautiful sunset ! (And I think I made for the perfect sandflies victim as ever since that morning the itching feet are keeping me awake at night!) i ll show you a picture of the sun rather that my feet, no worries!

We left the Abel Tasman area to visit the Animal farm around Nelson. A little fast growing business, a bit strange for us (do you really travel all the way here and then see Amélie going crazy with a rabbit in her arms....? Or the boys feeding some pigs...? - well to give you our answer, yes we did, in that sense that we are not traveling for the kids to remember anything in particular, but for the time spent together, for them learning to touch and see and experience differences, learning to be flexible in a way, and to now the real value of being with the family.) 

I also revived a moment of nostalgic memory seeing the guinea pigs (cavias) our brother stephane used to have a few of them, that made babies like rabbits and so his room ended up, well, a bit like that farm down in Nelson.

In the late afternoon, when the weather really got bad, we arrived at Nelson Foundation which must be great by hood weather and was perfect for us then. It is a mix between ..... For the belgians; The Verbeke foundation along the n49 and Bokrijk, topped up with a brewery! We entered an old cargo plane, saw some old new Zealand passenger busses and tasted some good local beers of Foundation.

Then we continued driving till the little harbour of Havelock home to the world famous (?!) Very strange but equally very tasteful green mussles ! Which is exactly what we had for diner in the famous Mussel Pot before hiding again from heavy wind and rain in our campervan.

 Guess who is now not only awaiting his blue cast but also his bleu mussels....???!! Nobody told us the disadvantage of colour coding with twins when traveling!!

NeXT day, waking up under the clear blue sky (I love Williams morning ritual to lift the blinds at the window and screaming us all awake : grand ciel bleu! Beaucoup de soleil! On se lève maintenant!) A hundred of left and right turns further, a short getting to the viewpoint walk (which really never is that short with our party of three and crossing all verrrry nice people who alll are into a chat on 'ow twins?' And then 'ow he broke his leg') , then the lovely route along the scenic queen Elisabeth road and Marlborough Sounds. 

We had a great long lunch brake along the water in Anakiwa 

and then continued to Picton, where we would spend the night awaiting our 'grand bateau bleu' (blue Bill happy) that would bring us next day (Sunday) to the Northern Island.

Luckily we had seen the grand bateau bleu' getting into Picton on the day before, because the idea of getting on the boat with the campervan was quiet hard to get! We did so after meeting two of Pierre s colleagues who are travelling  the other way around! Small world, Bing Vistaprint? Then on the boat 70 rough (but friendly ;-)) guys from a motorgroup. I was quiet impressed. They are all 3 times Pierre (in all ways you can measure someone), have half his amount of teeth and with their black motorgear on left me quit speechless. It did give for some unusual sights though, which I unfortunately didn't really have the guts to photograph.... 

Like the one guy sleeping in foetus position in a little corner of the deck, you would almost give him a doudou to complete the tender image. Apart from the scenery on the boat, it was of course the scenery of the sounds we cruised trough which really was impressive!

And then arriving in Wellington! Northern Island! The smell of the Last Days coming closer! After hesitating a lot, we stayed and don't regret, at the very centered carpark/ 'camping' just off the boat, in the port. 

Next day we visited the Te Papa Museum to have at least some background info (shouldn't we have started with that? Reminds me I still didn't take the time to read....... Not even the Rough Guides introduction...) And interesting info about the Maori/ European influences, culture and relations.

Today (Monday) we had a long driving day, the longest. And it is immediately clear why we don't drive long distances.... Omg! Anyway, we drove all the way to lake Taupo and will add an hour tomorrow morning to go up to Rotorua. 

We are here in volvanic region (and again Lord of the Rings) with all that goes with it; mudpools, hot water rivers and geysers!/we hope to take in some of that tomorrow in Rotorua altough Mat's cast isn't making hot pools the best activity!  Hopefully with some sun!