The strange clicks and beeps of the native Tui bird woke us this grey, cold morning as we set off to discover the South Island. Took the cheaper (and stinkier) Bluebridge ferry from Wellington to Picton. Couldn’t decide if it was better to endure the lashing rain on deck or the urine stench below. Our favourite announcement: ‘Pissingers needing left axis go to the sickund floor’ finally gave us a breakthrough into understanding the kiwi accent – they’ve got their vowel sounds mixed up! So, after picking our way through the tiny waterways to land in tiny Picton harbour, we drove the windy bendy scenic Queen Charlotte Drive around Marlborough Sounds, finally parking on a viewpoint above Havelock for another night free camping. The weather forecast on our little TV said winds of 140 kph expected but even parking in the most sheltered corner didn’t protect us from the frightening gusts that shook our little home on wheels into the early hours. We were even more spooked when an air raid siren went off in the town below at 1am in the morning! (Turns out it’s how they summon their firemen.)
2 comments:
We've managed to catch up with Jen and David at Taupo/Wairakei. They are both well and enjoying their tour David, in particular, seemed in really good form. Because we had to drop Angel at a Guide camp out twards the west coast (Pirongia Forest Park) we were a little later getting down to Wairakei than we'd have liked but we made it by about 19:00hrs. We went down into Taupo and the boys had a quick drip inthe lake. We then went and had a burger and returned to their hotel where we chatted over our laptop and showed them a quick history of 'the Hamilton(NZ) Holmes' since their arrival 'Downunder' 13months ago. We left them at 22:00hrs. and got back to Hamilton just before midnight!!
We hear a rumour about the possibility of a slightly longer stay 'Downunder'?
Sorry to do two comments on this posting but I got distracted and forgot the main reason why I was commenting! Your problem with the fire siren is a direct result of our lack of population which has a major effect on the range of goods/products available for purchase i.e. small population = small range of goods.
The only way these small outlying communities survive is for some services to be provided by volunteers, like the UK does with RNLI lifeboat crews. They sound the siren when there is a need for their services and everyone of the trained volunteers who can hear the siren drops what they are doing and rushes to the Fire Station and as soon as they have a full crew they head off to the fire.
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