We awoke to
the sound of a light rain on the roof of the tent and thinking to ourselves, damn!,
as it never great packing up a tent in the rain. Anyway first things first, a
cup of tea then consider how to proceed.
So around
0800 we started packing up all the beddings, chairs and food boxes etc until
such time we could start loading the car and by 0900 all was complete, it takes
much longer to pack rather than the usual way when it’s not raining but then
the rain was quite heavy and so we gave up and went for a breakfast a had a
good chat with the Ugandan couple and also another New Zealand couple who live
in Christchurch who came for a pleasant weekend in Akaroa and by 10.00hrs they
had gone home as the weather is not going to improve they said. Oh well back to
the packing and this time Samual the Ugandan farmer came over to help which was
nice and by 10.30 we was done.. time for a shower and leave for Blenheim.
The drive
from Akaroa took us the same way as we had first arrived in South Island and it
was very wet at first up to Christchurch which took about 75 minutes and then
it became dry but very overcast and grey and likely to rain at any time. So we
continued North via Kaikora where the whales live and then on until we reached
Blenheim around 5 pm and so in to New World for the evenings food and we bought
some nice salads and Noel the great New Zealand invention the egg bacon and
tomato pie, bloody brilliant.
We got to
the Motel and we chatted up the owner is there anywhere we can put up the tent
to dry it tomorrow morning and we looked at his garden around the Motel and
agreed that there was not enough space and then said , I know where we can do
it, I am also the gardener for the Methodist Church across the road and
although I am Catholic, they will not mind if you put up in their garden for a
while. Sounds like fun but just wondering what will happen if there is a
service on tomorrow morning with the attendees sidestepping our tent raising
activities.
So let’s
see what happens tomorrow morning and that it is not raining. We must leave
here by midday as we head to Picton for the Inter Island ferry to Wellington.
